With this posting, I'd like to start a new thread, prompted by a paragraph in Stevan's first response to my reintroducing the possibility of transition to free Web access via sales of e-reprints.
At 05:29 PM 2/21/00 +0000, Stevan Harnad wrote: >No, in my opinion, the paid-reprint strategy is incoherent and leads >nowhere. Yes, the self-archiving strategy is more "confrontational," >but what it is confronting is a conflict of interest between research >and publication that is intrinsic in the status quo, and that will not >be resolved voluntarily by the interests that are pitted against those >of research and researchers. (Why should it be? If I were an >established journal publisher, I would not let go of the S/L/P revenue >stream unless I had to.) Commercial journal publishers and society journal publishers have different stakeholders to answer to. If members of scientific societies want their societies to offer IFWA (immediate free Web access) for the price of 100 paper reprints, the society should offer it. This is especially true since societies are strapped to fund e-versions of paper-published journals, and IFWA sales could bring profits that could pay for e-publishing non-IFWA articles (immediately, with restricted access) or backfiles (with free access). >From 1994 until 1999, researchers that I discussed the matter with and those attending my talks on e-publication did not personalize the advantage of e-publication of journal articles. Starting last year, researchers seem to realize that Web access was superior to library access _for them_ and that free access should be affordable. For the first time, there seems to be the likelihood that most authors want IFWA and would be willing to begin to pay for it. [Remember, many members of this forum believe that authors and their institutions will eventually be willing to pay for it.] Two reasons that those running scientific societies have not already offered their authors IFWA is that they are scared of free Web access to journal articles and their members have not demanded that it be offered. Now that members are beginning to yearn for IFWA and will soon demand it, I predict society publishers will start offering it. One society has recently started: In June 1999 the Governing Board of the Entomological Society of America, which publishes four well-respected entomological journals, voted to offer IFWA in the form of "unlimited PDF reprints" for _less_ than the price of 100 reprints. In December 1999 the Board voted to post articles on PubMed Central for the same price as ESA's unlimited PDF reprints, unless there were significant additional expenses incurred by PMC posting. In the latter case, the price would be increased to cover the additional cost. Question for discussion: What should a society do relative to making its journals Web accessible during the transition from the current system to a system of free access to all refereed journal literature with quality control and certification paid for by publication fees? Tom Walker ========================================================================= Thomas J. Walker Department of Entomology & Nematology University of Florida, PO Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620 E-mail: [email protected] FAX: (352)392-0190 Web: http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/tjwbib/walker.htm =========================================================================
