CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
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News from CILIP
Friday 20 February 2004
For immediate release (Please copy to online discussion lists)
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION NEEDED TO CURB PUBLISHERS' MONOPOLY POWER
CILIP responds to Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications
Merger proposals between scientific publishers should be should be strictly monitored and investigated to avoid the further enhancement of monopoly market power. So says CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in its response to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee inquiry into scientific publications. Given the international nature of the journals market, it is essential to extend co-operation across nation states, CILIP adds.
Pointing out that the top five publishers now produce around 37% of the nearly 8,000 scientific journals rated as worthy of citation analysis by the Institute of Scientific Information, CILIP says that the average price of an academic journal rose by 58% between 1998 and 2003, compared to an 11% increase in the UK Retail Prices Index over the same period. Meanwhile the information resource budget of UK university libraries decreased by 29% in real terms over a comparable period.
'Big deal schemes', where journal publishers provide online access to all their journals, are of limited value to many libraries, the response suggests. Very little choice is offered in the content of the package, and some of the titles are not relevant to the research and teaching undertaken at a particular university.
Open access journals, made available via the Web rather than in conventional peer-reviewed publications, are available to all without financial barriers, the response points out. Urging the Government to support the trend towards open access journals, CILIP says: "There should be no discrimination by the Research Assessment Exercise for or against open access journals. The deciding factor must be the quality of the journal and the quality of the article."
Extension of open access models would lead to a more efficient use of public money in terms of both research grants and academic library budgets, CILIP suggests, adding that "It would also do a great deal to bridge the divide between information-rich countries and those in the developing world."
Welcoming the recent Legal Deposit Libraries Act, which extends legal deposit to digital publications, CILIP nevertheless points out that legal deposit libraries such as the British Library are not open access providers. "What should be mandated is that all universities make their 'own' published research articles openly accessible by publishing them in an open access journal and/or depositing them in their own university open access archives," the response says.
CILIP's response to the Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications was prepared by its Post-16 Learning Adviser, Kathy Ennis. The full text is available at: www.cilip.org.uk/advocacy/responses/scientific.html. The Inquiry website is at www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/science_and_technology_committee/scitech111203a.cfm.
Contact: Tim Buckley Owen, Head of External Relations.
Tel: 020 7255 0652. Email: [log in to unmask]
Notes to Editors
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers, with around 22,000 members working in all sectors, including business and industry, science and technology, further and higher education, schools, local and central government, the health service, the voluntary sector, national and public libraries. For more information about CILIP, please go to www.cilip.org.uk.
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