Britain decides ‘open access’ is still an open issue

Abstract

Can journals function if authors, instead of readers, carry the cost of publication? An inquiry by the UK House of CommonsScience and Technology Committee concluded this week that we will just have to wait and see.After five months of investigating access to journals in science, technology and medicine, the committee has reported that the concept of 'author-pays' open access seems "viable" but requires "further experimentation".In the meantime, the report advises the government to oblige UK authors to publish articles on their institutions' websites.Many people have questioned whether the author-pays open-access model, as pursued by the Public Library of Science and BioMed Central, for example, is economically sustainable.At the same time, the current system of 'reader-pays' has resulted in spiralling journal costs that many libraries can no longer afford."This cannot continue," says committee chairman Ian Gibson, a Labour member of parliament.