From the issue dated January 30, 2004
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Publishers Fear Government Intervention
If the marketplace doesn't settle on either open-access or traditional scientific journals, will governments step in? That may be commercial publishers' biggest fear. Unperturbed by competition from journals that charge authors instead of subscribers, commercial publishers -- along with large scientific societies like the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science -- worry that governments may legislate change in the industry. A bill introduced in Congress in June would deny copyright protection to any papers published by scientists receiving substantial federal support. The bill, which is unpopular among scientists and on Capitol Hill, is not considered likely to pass. But in Britain last month Parliament announced an inquiry into the price and availability of scientific journals, including consideration of government support for open-access publications. Representing publishers' concern about possible government intervention, the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers released a statement in November about accessibility. "Abandoning the diversity of proven publishing models in favor of a single, untested model could have disastrous consequences for the scientific research community," the group said. "It could seriously jeopardize the flow of information today as well as the continuity of the archival record of scientific progress that is so important to our society tomorrow." In the absence of government requirements, many publishers will stick with subscription fees. Robert D. Bovenschulte, president of the publications division of the American Chemical Society, puts it succinctly: "As long as the subscription model is working for us, we see no strong motivation to change it." http://chronicle.com Section: Research & Publishing Volume 50, Issue 21, Page A12 | |||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2004 by The Chronicle of Higher Education