Walt Crawford, Journals Revisited: A Survivable Future, American Libraries, May 2004. A review of the serials crisis and potential solutions, including OA. Excerpt: "The number of open access journals (with no charge for online access, typically covering costs via publication fees or institutional subsidy) will certainly grow --but, as with SPARC-supported lower-cost journals, that growth won't save libraries any money until such journals replace overpriced commercial and professional-society journals, or at least cause their publishers to lower subscription prices." Walt outlines his "optimal scenario", which includes more online-only journals (roughly, all but the 5-10% of true "core journals" in a field), more LOCKSS and library-deposit programs to preserve online content, and lower prices by both commercial and non-profit publishers.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/18/2004 06:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
