B - Open-access publishing at what cost?

Roth, Dana L., Bronsdon, Robert, Phipps, Thomas E., Jr., and Dylla, H. Frederick. 2008 Open-access publishing at what cost?. Physics Today 61(2)8-9.

Letters commenting on Guinnessy, Paul. 2007 Stakeholders weigh costs of open-access publishing. Physics Today 60(8)29-30.
Dana L. Roth discusses the impact of page charges on the economics of open-access publication and expresses concern about the possible loss of quality that may accompany widespread open access. Open access is primarily driven by the needs of the medical community and its patients; shouldn't open access experiments be conducted and refined there first, before we attempt to impose it on all of science and technology?
Robert Bronsdon thinks the underlying problem concerns organizations formed around the intent to profit from the publication of scientific research.
Thomas E. Phipps points out that people not directly involved or institutionally affilliated are openly discriminated against by archives such as the preprint arXiv at Cornell University. For example he was charged $18 at the American Institute of Physics website to download a single page article in the American Journal of Physics.
H. Frederick Dylla, the executive director of the American Journal of Physics replies to explain the economic reasoning behind their charging system.



http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_61/iss_2/8_1.shtml



Posted for John Glen

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