<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Thursday, December 02, 2004  

Open Access In Scholarly Publishing
http://www.infotoday.com/IT/nov04/poynder.shtml

Richard Poynder, a U.K.-based freelance journalist who specializes in intellectual property and the information industry, observes that self-archiving is gaining allies in some surprising quarters: "President of Blackwell Publishing Bob Campbell, for instance, has come to believe that not only is it acceptable, but it could benefit publishers. First, by offering easily accessible archives over the Web, it would deflect criticism from those who argue that the taxpayer should be entitled to read what they have paid for. Second, self-archiving may drive traffic toward publishers' versions of articles -- thereby increasing, rather than decreasing, access to their services, through the so-called citation boosting effect, which provides "increasing evidence that self- or open archiving provides an added promotional effect for the official version." Poynder finishes his column with this meditation: "What, then, is the solution to the journal affordability problem? We don't know. What we do know is that, although the merits of OA are indisputable, it looks certain (in the short term at least) to increase, not decrease, library costs. The tragedy for librarians is that while they have done so much to promote OA, their reward has been only further financial pain. No gain without pain, they say. In this case, researchers gain; libraries feel the pain!"

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:05 AM
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