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Am I right in thinking that PLoS waive the fee in cases where it would otherwise inhibit the publication of important research? David Sent from my iPhone On 31 Jan 2011, at 10:03, Bob Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > To complain that having to pay for journal articles is an example of a lack of openness by the research community is like complaining about the paywall on the website of The Times as a lack of openness by journalists. In both cases it is a matter of who pays the costs of administering the publication process. > > Open access journal publishing, in which researchers pay to have their articles published, has some merits as it makes access free to everybody. However, it also places an additional financial burden on researchers (imagine if journalists had to pay to have their articles published) and creates a barrier for those researchers (eg in developing countries) who have less money at their disposal. > > Bob Ward > > Policy and Communications Director > Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment > London School of Economics and Political Science > Houghton Street > London WC2A 2AE > > http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham > > Tel. +44 (0) 20 7106 1236 > Mob. +44 (0) 7811 320346 > -----Original Message----- > From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephan Matthiesen > Sent: 30 January 2011 00:07 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] On openness in science and public engagement - a different view > > Hello Michael, > > Am 29.01.2011 21:58, schrieb Michael Kenward: >> Follow the links in this piece and you arrive at a paper that wants me to pay US$34.00 before I can read it. >> >> http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a931921327~db=all > > Yes, and this is something that many scientists as well as funders are > quite unhappy with. Unfortunately the publishing companies have often a > de-facto monopoly that's difficult to change. > > The alternative are open access publishing models, which were initially > developed and championed by scientists and are growing fast. Hopefully, > in a few years time, it will be very rare for users to have to pay for > scientific articles. > > Success stories are PLoS (Public Library of Science, > http://www.plos.org) who publish first class paper in the same league as > Nature or Science, and Biomedcentral (http://www.biomedcentral.com) that > have a wide range of journals in the biomedical field. > > Funders support Open Access strongly, you find a list of the policies > here (the paper from the ERC has quite strong words about publishing > companies...): http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/funderpolicies/ > > I believe the science engagement community should also strongly support > and promote open access, and I'm kind of surprised that this isn't > really discussed much (except by Mike Kenward who points out that issue > again and again - thank you!). > > All public engagement will remain superficial, unless people who are > interested in understanding science in more details have easy and open > access to the scientific literature, whether they are journalists, > teachers, patients who want info about their illness, or just anybody > who is curious. > >> What was that about the lack of openness in the media? (I agree about that, by the way.) > > Well, yes. I certainly agree that not everything is fine. However, I > believe my basic message stands. Even with non-free articles, you can > still get them - you can pay, or you can go to a library. It's > inconvenient (and that needs to change), but not inaccessible. > > On the other hand, how can you get a record of the editing decisions in > a newsroom? Or the record of the business decisions that lead to the > banking crisis? Can you buy them somewhere for 34$? I guess if you want > to scrutinize that, there is a much more fundamental barrier than the > inconvenience of having to go to a library - they'll probably just tell > you that it's not your business and you don't have a right to know it. > > So, I stand by my opinion that science is a fundamentally more open > activity than many other activities that dominate society. > > Cheers > Stephan > > -- > Stephan Matthiesen > http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de > Neu auf www.science-texts.de: Wülstig - das Januarmuster > > ********************************************************************** > Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html > You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. > > Psci-com is part of the National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail'. > It adheres to the JISCMail Acceptible Use Policy: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/acceptableuse.html > and to the JISCMail guidelines for etiquette: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/etiquette.html > > Email commands: > 1. 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