Jan Velterop (BioMed Central) wrote:
> New business models need to be developed to suit the circumstances and
> the input-paid Open Access model is one well on the way of proving its
> feasibility and economic viability.
> http://www.biomedcentral.com/
As a publisher using this model, could you tell us what will prevent a
publishing hegemony where such journals eventually control access to
research dissemination, not by restricting access to readers but by
restricting access to authors? Also, if this is defined as open access,
why can't existing journals claim they are open access too (open access for
authors)? Are we not moving from one closed access model to another?
> Where no Open Access journals are available, or for those, like Suhail,
> who do not seem to accept the costs of such a service, Open Access can
> be achieved by self-archiving in open institutional repositories.
Will self archiving be possible if and when existing TA journals cease to
exist?
> Isn't it interesting again to see, also in this debate, two opinions
> from completely opposite ends of the spectrum come together in their
> rejection of a practical solution to the problematic issues science
> publishing faces?
This is because the *practical* solution unfortunately does not have
universal implementation. We do not need new journals that offer this
form of open access. What we really need, as I said before, is to find
mechanisms through which existing journals can make the transition to
open access without the need for author tolls.
Suhail
Received on Thu Feb 12 2004 - 19:37:31 GMT