An excerpt of article from University World News:
A trend to make printed scientific journals available online worldwide, is under fire. Although President Obama has signed a measure to make the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy permanent, some US lawmakers have launched legislation to roll back the effort. While advocates assert moving science journals online is tech-savvy, economical and the only proper use of taxpayer-generated research, problems with costs, archiving, copyright, and support of small professional organisations (centred on their journal identity and research collaboration) are causing second thoughts.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, or SPARC, has advocated the switch to electronic journals to make biomedical research available to users, including third-world countries that cannot afford the rising costs of journals.
SPARC Japan, a project of Japan’s National Institute of Informatics and SPARC Europe, an alliance of European research libraries and institutions, are also pushing conversion from paper to electronic. The NIH Public Access Policy was considered a model provision, requiring that all NIH-sponsored research be published online and accessible to all on the internet.
But in spite of the cost of printed biomedical publications doubling in 10 years, online publications are not a free alternative. As the NIH Library admits: “Online publications may in time be cheaper to produce but they are not cheaper now.”
Read the rest here
