Donald MacLeod, Warning over 'cost' of free science publishing, The Guardian, December 1, 2004. Excerpt: 'Open access publishing could cost UK universities and the government dearly, the science minister, Lord Sainsbury, warned MPs today. In a regular science question time session with the science and technology committee, which is campaigning vigorously for research articles to be made freely available in universities and libraries, Lord Sainsbury denied that the government was balancing the interests of the publishers with those of researchers. At the moment about 10% of the costs of publication were borne by private industry which subscribed to the journals, he said. Under a free access system all the costs would fall on the government and the universities. And as UK scientists published a disproportionately high share of journal papers internationally, the UK would be in a negative position, he argued...."It is a not a matter of balancing interests - the government should be supporting the best and most cost-effective way to channel scientific output," said the minister.'
(PS: A few quick comments. First, Lord Sainsbury is the UK Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, Department of Trade and Industry, and helped compose the generally negative government response to the Gibson committee report. Second, this concern is all about OA journals, not OA archiving, the same confusion displayed in the government response to the report. Third, even within the world of journals, it overlooks evidence that OA journals have lower costs. Fourth, OA journals can cover their costs without charging users, which is the whole point; it doesn't matter that some users have the means to pay. Fifth, the renunciation of "balancing interests" contradicts the assurance in the government response to the July report that "the Government's approach is to facilitate a level playing field.")
Update. Sainsbury's views from this interview are summarized in the December 3 issue of CORDIS News.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/01/2004 11:50:00 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.
