The philosophy behind open access is that publicly funded research should be freely available to all as soon as is practicable. Whilst this is a very laudable aim, the requirement has forced learned journals to consider how best to respond to the challenge of this new environment. What is clear is that the traditional model of free authorship and the reader paying is no longer tenable for journals with a significant authorship holding such grants.
We at Rheumatology have taken a very proactive attitude in responding to this challenge. We analysed our submitted and accepted manuscripts during 2004, demonstrating that 38% of accepted papers with a declared source of funding had funding from one of the major UK and USA funding agencies which have either already adopted, or are expected to adopt, an open access deposition policy. Loss of these manuscripts would pose a very real threat to the quality of the journal. Financial modelling indicates that continuing the traditional model is not viable in the long term. We have, therefore, been forced to consider alternative business models, including partial or full open access and publishing the journal online only.
We have decided to adopt a partial or optional open access model since this will enable those authors who must, as a condition of their grant, place post prints in an open archive/repository to do so, whilst also enabling those who do not wish to do so to continue to submit and publish papers in the traditional manner. Our publishers, Oxford University Press, have developed an optional open access model for their Press-owned journals, called Oxford Open, and our system will be very similar. Rheumatology will, we wish to reassure our authors and readers, continue to be published both in print and on-line.
We are therefore delighted to announce that, commencing 1 January 2006, authors wishing to publish using an open access system will be able to do so in Rheumatology....Authors will be offered the choice of using open access once their manuscript has been accepted. Thus, the editorial decision process will not be affected by open access. The charge for open access in 2006 will be £1500 ($2800) per article, or the discounted rate of £800/$1500 per article for authors whose institutions have an online subscription. There will also be discounts available for authors from developing countries. Further details of submitting and charges for open access publication can be found via the journal website.
(PS: In general I applaud this step. I can't tell, however, whether Rheumatology will demand payment in order to let its authors live up to their prior agreements with funders. If so, I cannot approve. These authors have an obligation to their funding agencies and should not have to pay a third party in order to fulfill it. Moreover, these authors may not want OA publication in a journal, merely OA deposit in a repository. If the journal really expects to be paid in these circumstances, then I recommend that authors look for another journal.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/24/2005 10:44:00 PM.
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.
