Shaoni Bhattacharya, UK government 'obstructing' open-access publishing, NewScientist, November 8, 2004. Excerpt: "The government’s response dismisses some of the open-access models the committee proposed it should back. 'The government's approach is to facilitate a level playing field so that the market can develop without any institutional barriers being put in the way of any particular publishing model,' it says....Jan Velterop, publisher and director, of open-access publishers BioMed Central, says he was disappointed and surprised at the government's response. 'The playing field is so unbelievably tilted, I can't see how saying it's all hunky-dory can make it level,' he told New Scientist. He believes that by not favouring even the possibility of open-access publishing, the government is severely skewing the field in favour of traditional publishers....However, representatives of the UK traditional scientific publishing industry welcomed the government's response. Traditional publishing models 'are competitive, transparent and efficient, with a strong record of both investment and innovation,' says Graham Taylor, a spokesman for the UK Publishers Association. 'They serve the research and academic communities and the British public well.'...The committee's original report stresses that 'a government strategy is urgently needed'. But the government's response states: 'The government is not aware that there are major problems in accessing scientific information, or that there is a large unsatisfied demand for this.' "
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/09/2004 09:34:00 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.
