Adena Schutzberg, On Intellectual Property, Licensing and Publishing, Directions Magazine, Apri 14, 2005. A survey of publishing issues for geospatial information science. Excerpt on OA: 'That brings me to an "alternative" model for publishing, this one for scientific research. The model most of us know, involves scholars doing research, submitting it for review and one day, having it published in a prestigious journal. The journal itself would take no money from the author, but might run advertising and might charge quite a lot to individuals and libraries for a subscription. Enter the new model. In the geospatial arena, one might want to be published in the International Journal of Health Geographics. It follows the "new model" called Open Access. That includes "journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access." To be part of the Directory of Open Access Journals, among other things, the journal must provide "fulltext, open access scientific and scholarly journals that use an appropriate quality control system to guarantee the content." International Journal of Health Geographics fits the criteria. It charges authors to be included, though the fee may be waived. Is that the best way to make scientific information available? Is it "better than" advertising and subscriptions? The jury is still out. However, it's worth noting that a recent study found free access journals are well-cited. About 5-10% of all scholarly journals now provide free access. (Just to be clear, Directions Magazines and its peers are considered trade journals. We use the traditional model where advertising and/or subscription fees support the business. Content, while sometimes scholarly, is more geared to the casual, but interested reader. These days, few geospatially related trade publications in the United States charge subscriber fees of any kind.)'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/15/2005 08:09:00 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.
