Open access to peer reviewed research:

freeing the literature

Fiona GodleeEditorial Director (Medicine)

BioMed Centralwww.biomedcentral.com

Open access….

• What do we mean by the current publishing model?

• What’s wrong with it?

• What are the alternatives?

Some fundamental questions

• Who owns science?

• What are the aims of scientific communication?

• How can these best be realised in the age of electronic communication?

• How should the scientific community cover the costs of quality control?

Open access…

• What do we mean by the current publishing model?

• What’s wrong with it?

• What are the alternatives?

Open access…

• What do we mean by the current publishing model?

• What’s wrong with it?

• What are the alternatives?

What’s wrong?

• High prices no longer reflect costs

• High prices limit access

• Fragments science

• Inefficient

• Slow

• Impact factors

The trouble with impact factors

• Based on journals not articles

• Not good for applied sciences

• Not good for small fields

Open access….

• What do we mean by the current publishing model?

• What’s wrong with it?

• What are the alternatives?

…Open access

• Dispense with subscriptions, and the things that support subscription revenues (copyright, access controls etc)

• Find new sources of revenue to pay for quality control and dissemination

Non-peer reviewed research

Centralised peer review performed by PubMed Central

Peer reviewed articles from journals

PubMed Central - full text repository of peer reviewed research

Non-peer reviewed research

Centralised peer review performed by PubMed Central

• Open access • Fully searchable and retrievable in PubMed

• Securely and permanently archived

• Copyright remains with authors• Fully peer reviewed

Original research

Peer review

Decisions based on validity not “relevance”

Peer review

Decisions based on validity not relevance

Open, with signed comments posted

Journals published by BMc

On line only

(Core” BMc journals)

•BMc Neurology

•BMc Gastroenterology

•etc

Print/on line

Genome Biology

Arthritis Research

Critical Care

CCT in CVM“Niche” journals

Number of articles submitted to BMC each month: Aug 2000 – Mar 2001

Number of articles accepted by BMC each month : Aug 2000 – Mar 2001

Overall av 53 days (11/21-193)

Medicine av 68 days (22-125)

Biology av 49 days (11/21-193)

Time from submission to publication

Can be seen by anyone in the world

Indexed in PubMed

Available on PubMed Central

On line submission

Open peer review

Rapid publication

Extensive promotion

Opportunities to update

Advantages

New

On line only

Disadvantages

What are BMC’s alternative sources of revenue?

Now– Advertising

Planned – Services to authors

and users – Author charges

Author charges

• Shift cost of quality control from user to author• Save money (~$500 vs ~$5000 per published

paper)• Create direct relation between service and cost• Are subject to normal market forces• If used to fund open access, author charges:

– fulfil the responsibility of researchers and funders to disseminate results of scientific research

– Re-enfranchise the disenfranchised

What can librarians do to promote open access?

• Get involved with SPARC

• Link your website to BioMed Central – Contact Becky Fishman for information (

becky@biomedcentral.com)

• Talk to your colleagues and faculty

• Be radical