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News Release from: Institution of Engineering and Technology
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 27 July 2004
"Author pays" publishing model is
flawed, says IEE
The IEE has expressed grave reservations regarding the UK Science and Technology Committee's call for scientific publishers to move to an open-access publishing model.
The IEE has expressed grave reservations regarding the UK Science and Technology Committee's call for scientific publishers to move to an open-access publishing model in its report "Scientific publications: free for all?" The IEE believes that there are three fundamental problems with the "author pays" model which need very careful consideration
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 17 Oct 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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First, such a model inevitably increases the pressure to publish, as the more that is published the greater the revenue.
There is therefore a risk of undermining the peer review process leading to a reduction in quality.
Secondly, the charge to authors will be substantial, making it less likely that outstanding work from poorer countries will be published.
Thirdly, large commercial organisations with substantial research activities publish relatively little (for obvious commercial reasons) but are major purchasers of published material.
Under the present model, they pay a fair price for this.
However, under the "author pays" model they will have free access.
This will remove income from the system and inevitably increase the charge to authors.
"As a charitable organisation, the IEE is here to serve the engineering community by promoting research and disseminating information to advance science, engineering and technology for the benefit of society", says Dr Alf Roberts, Chief Executive of the IEE.
"We are happy to adopt any publishing model which better enables us to achieve that objective".
"However, the committee seems to be confusing two quite separate issues: whether commercial publishers make excessive profit from scientific publishing with whether or not, if the current publishing model in which 'reader pays' were replaced by one in which 'author pays', research results would be more widely available". Request free introductory details about products from Institution of Engineering and Technology ...
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