Open Access Journals

Last week, the Royal Society issued a statement outlining its disquiet at the drive, led by the Research Councils UK, for open access journals.

Essentially, the Royal Society is concerned that the movement is motivated in part by the desire for some of the participants to see profit-making journals go out of business. They acknowledge that some journal companies do make a lot of money, but also point out that to produce a journal to the standards that the scientific community demands, money has to be spent. They also state, with justification, that the financial model upon which the current proposal rest is not clearly stated and has not been tested, and that, in all, they feel that everything's moving a bit too quickly.

This has now upset a group of very eminent scientists, who have reproved the Royal Society for dragging their feet (and created a website just to do it).

So, on the one hand, you have the Royal Society, and the other you have the research councils, backed by the Wellcome Trust, with what looks to be an excellent idea. Neither side are anyone's idea of bad guys, but I think the Royal Society are perhaps being a bit too cautious on this one. I believe that they will be brought on side eventually and we can hopefully get some good, independent, open access journals that are run for the benefit of scientists rather than publishing companies.