Marian Burright reviews John Willinsky's book (The Access Principle, MIT Press, 2005, print edition, OA edition) in the summer issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. (Thanks to Kumiko Vezina.) Excerpt:
John Willinsky makes a strong case for the open access publishing model of scholarly research. Willinksy roots his argument for open access in the politics of "evidence-based policymaking".... Willinsky establishes the case for open access based on two principles. First, advances in Internet technology and adequate economic models are available to sustain open access publishing. Second, open access benefits a global knowledge economy in which developing nations are able to participate in the research and development process at a more equitable rate than they have done under the constraints of traditional publishing.
Willinsky situates his case for open access within the economics of scholarship. The knowledge economy does not produce instant monetary returns for authors but depends on long-term establishment of scholarly reputation. The knowledge economy continues to grow with new journal publications and increased expectations for publishing. While faculty members expect to have access to the highest tier journals in their fields, library budgets have not kept pace with journal price increases. Thus, commercial publishers have been allowed to exploit this tension between faculty needs and limited resources to fund them. It is at the heart of this tension that the need for an alternative publishing model arises. Willinsky articulates the current problem of the knowledge economy and proceeds with thirteen well argued chapters to establish the case for open access....
Online publishing has affected academic societies in so far as they can no longer depend on revenue stream from individual journal subscriptions. Instead, societies have two options to sustain their journals: either by using commercial publishers or by finding lower cost alternatives such as publishing opportunities supported by SPARC....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/16/2006 09:55:00 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.
