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Is Open Access the answer?
Absolutely.  I'm amazed that both the Americans and the Wellcome Trust have made this compulsory and the NHS hasn't.  Must be some beefy politics happening somewhere.  And we do of course still want things to be published in places we can find them, and indexed by the databases - so it's good NLM are involved.
 
Sarah
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Clegg [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 14 December 2007 11:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Is Open Access the answer?

There is quite a good moral argument that the public shouldn’t have to pay to see the results of research that they’ve already paid for through taxes.

 

And while Joe Public may be able to find library copies of articles in closed-source journals, with enough patience and legwork, there’s a ‘cost’ associated with all that time and effort that is in a different league to the few seconds of clicking and typing necessary to find an open-access article.

 

This is one area where the Americans are ahead of us – there, you are legally obligated to make public-funded papers available for free. While self-archiving is one solution, it’s a bit of a ‘hack’ compared to publishing in a channel that’s already free, and whether you can even get away with it or not depends on the journal you’re dealing with.

 

Andrew.

 

From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Glover
Sent: 14 December 2007 10:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Is Open Access the answer?

 

I am a supporter of Open Access but the most appropriate place to publish is the journal with the most relevance to the paper and the subject area.  Unless your funding body dictates otherwise, this may or may not be an open access journal.

 

As Andrew says, PubMed Central is a repository and not a publisher.

 

Steve Glover

Librarian

Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

 

 

From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Clegg
Sent: 14 December 2007 10:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Is Open Access the answer?

One downside is the pay-to-publish aspect. Your institution (and remember not all of us work for the NHS) must be willing to pick up the publishing costs, either via a ‘membership’ subscription or a one-off fee. Personally I’m all in favour of OA but had to lobby my previous employer to stump up the money to let me publish in a BMC journal.

 

I think most journals demand exclusives, I’ve even had a paper rejected by a journal before because it was too similar to one I’d presented at a conference (not even another journal).

 

I don’t think PubMed Central publishes any journals of its own, it just acts as a repository for free content from other publishers, I believe (?). You may be thinking of PLoS (Public Library of Science)?

 

Andrew Clegg

Information Scientist

National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health

4th Floor, Kings Court, 2-16 Goodge St., London W1T 2QA

Tel. 020 7438 3022

http://www.ncc-wch.org.uk/

 

 

 

From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Panzetta, Sarah
Sent: 14 December 2007 09:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Is Open Access the answer?

 

Dear all,

Apologies for my ignorance, but where do you suggest users publish their work?  I've been pushing Open Access peer-reviewed journals and steering people away from print journals, as that seems the most ethical option but is that right?  Are there arguments against Open Access?  e.g.might the work disappear in the electronic ether if it's not in a print journal, are there political reasons for universities to want articles published in print journals (despite impact factors being v.g. for BMC journals)? And is it possible to publish in both, or do journals demand exclusives (like The News of the World)?  And what's all this about the NHS no longer having a special relationship with BioMed Central?  Should we be pushing PubMed Central now?

Comments v. welcome!

Thanks

Sarah

Sarah Panzetta
Library Services Manager
Camden PCT Library (includes Camden and Islington Health Promotion Resources Service)

Tel: 020-7530 3936/3910
E-mail:[log in to unmask]

www.camdenpct.nhs.uk/library
 

 

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