Mike Shanahan, UK politicians back open access to research findings, SciDev.Net, July 21, 2004. Excerpt: "Ian Gibson, the chair the committee — who was a professor of biology at the University of East Anglia before being elected a member of Parliament in 1997 — said that that open access publishing was 'a very democratic way forward', along which publishing was moving gradually. Most of the report focuses on measures that the committee feels would increase the benefits to scientists....A central recommendation is the establishment of 'institutional depositories' to house research papers electronically so that they can be accessed for free. The report also recommends that UK research councils provide funds to authors wishing to publish in open access journals....Blackwell Publishing told the committee in evidence presented earlier this year that the open access model would present barriers to scientists in poorer countries, as many authors would not be able to afford the fee. But the committee argues that publishers could develop schemes by which authors from developing countries are paid for their submissions — in the same way that journals currently subsidise developing country access. In any case, says the report, because research output from developing countries is currently relatively low, such countries might find it easier to pay publication fees for a relatively small number of authors than to cover the costs of subscriptions to all of the journals they need."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/21/2004 10:06:00 AM.
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.
