Frank Spilhaus, Spreading the word, The Economist, August 19, 2004. A letter to the editor in response to the unsigned story on OA, Access all areas, from August 7. Excerpt: "Your article on 'open access' to scientific literature is shockingly one-sided ('Access all areas', August 7th). As with most utopian visions it contains fatal flaws. Open access depends upon payment for all costs of publication by the author, or the supporter of the research, to replace the income currently made from subscribers. In many countries, government would become the principal source of funds for science publication. This sets up a system that can be politically controlled. Will researchers be allowed to publish politically incorrect work in subjects ranging from embryos to global change? Will interference such as forbidding co-authorship with residents of the state's enemies, as happens in America under the guise of financial sanctions, become the norm?...There are disciplines, notably mathematics and some areas of theory, that are not funded well enough to support a non-subscription model of publication. It may be easy to find money in a large space or medical programme but what about the lone scientist working in his garret?" Spilhaus is the Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union. (Thanks to Matt Cockerill.)
(PS: Three quick replies. First, the upfront funding model for OA journals does not change the way research is funded, only the way its dissemination is funded. Most funded research was funded by governments long before OA found its feet, and OA has not changed this pattern. Even if government funding were hazardous, it's a hazard independent of OA. Second, the upfront funding model is not the only funding model for OA journals; other models will work better in fields less well-funded than the natural sciences, and OA archiving delivers OA without the need to fund OA journals. Third, who is better off, a lone scientist in a garrett with open access to the literature or a lone scientist in a garrett with toll access to it?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/22/2004 08:30:00 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.
