5 ms·

European Union backs open access of research findings

58 points by ananyob 14y ago

danmaz74 14y ago
"But they do show the influence that the UK is having on international debates." Considering that the UK proposal was unveiled yesterday, perhaps this wasn't an influence - but an independent will?
- Loic 14y ago
  The author is from the UK. If you read a bit more, you discover that the EU has already been doing a pilot on the FP7 research framework for 20% of the publications and has already built the infrastructure to support the open access. A lot of universities all over Europe are also putting their research results in open access databases. So, take it as a bit of biased reporting in the middle of some really encouraging developments.
  - ananyob 14y ago
    Though the UK has been mulling the policy for quite a while too (as you can see from the links in the story). At least a year. (The UK also enlisted Jimmy Wales to work out its policy in May.)
    - danmaz74 14y ago
      I'm glad for both the UK and the EU; this doesn't need to be a competition. I just found that remark amusing, like the famous headline "Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off" :D
      - ananyob 14y ago
        Good point!
      - ananyob 14y ago
        Though it wouldn't be such a bad thing for different countries to compete on!
  - danmaz74 14y ago
    That's what I was thinking about ;)
    - ananyob 14y ago
      Oh and to my knowledge no other nation has gone further on open access than the UK to date (not even the US where the NIH mandated submission to open access repository after 12 months).
- zerostar07 14y ago
  That's quite laughable given that the very article is written by the UK-based for-profit publisher (and part of the science oligopoly), Nature Publishing Group.
  - AkThhhpppt 14y ago
    Nature has been an unapologetic advocate of open-access publishing for as long as I've been reading it.
    - ananyob 14y ago
      For the record, NPG actually supports the form of open access being put forward by the UK and the EU (check out the statements on their website). The company already complies with the 6 month rule and helps authors deposit in PubMed Central. It also runs a number of open access and hybrid model journals...
cx91 14y ago
I'm curious what the remaining costs of publishing are under such an OpenAccess policy. For the UK proposal, the Guardian article from July 15 [1] mentions article processing charges (APC) around GBP 2,000 per article, presumably paid by the institution to some private institution to manage the peer-review process. Of course, the peer-reviewing itself is done free of charge by fellow academics. The Nature post doesn't seem to address this point (unless this is what they refer to as "up-front publication costs" in the second paragraph). Either way, charges around GBP 2,000 per article for processing are hefty (especially given that the bulk of the work is done by the academics for free). Maybe one should ask the question how this figure could be driven down? [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-british-scientific-research?fb=optOut http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-br...
- scscsc 14y ago
  "mentions article processing charges (APC) around GBP 2,000 per article, presumably paid by the institution to some private institution to manage the peer-review process" I would gladly (and highly profitably) run a for-profit which "manages the peer-review process" for GBP 1 per article.
  - ananyob 14y ago
    You'd be able to find 3 relevant peer reviewers for each article, get their comments, feed them back to the author, then make sure the article was appropriately amended prior to publication (or rejected if required) for £1 per article? Your time must be very cheap! Or am I missing something?
    - wtvanhest 14y ago
      Exactly. I fully support the open research movement as it will drive competition, new business models and spread quality research, but the review process is probably a very challenging one to manage. People will evenutally solve this problem parts at a time, but I wouldn't put a £1 per article price tag on it yet.
  - 14y ago

58 points by ananyob 14y ago

"But they do show the influence that the UK is having on international debates." Considering that the UK proposal was unveiled yesterday, perhaps this wasn't an influence - but an independent will?

Loic 14y ago
The author is from the UK. If you read a bit more, you discover that the EU has already been doing a pilot on the FP7 research framework for 20% of the publications and has already built the infrastructure to support the open access. A lot of universities all over Europe are also putting their research results in open access databases. So, take it as a bit of biased reporting in the middle of some really encouraging developments.
- ananyob 14y ago
  Though the UK has been mulling the policy for quite a while too (as you can see from the links in the story). At least a year. (The UK also enlisted Jimmy Wales to work out its policy in May.)
  - danmaz74 14y ago
    I'm glad for both the UK and the EU; this doesn't need to be a competition. I just found that remark amusing, like the famous headline "Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off" :D
    - ananyob 14y ago
      Good point!
    - ananyob 14y ago
      Though it wouldn't be such a bad thing for different countries to compete on!
- danmaz74 14y ago
  That's what I was thinking about ;)
  - ananyob 14y ago
    Oh and to my knowledge no other nation has gone further on open access than the UK to date (not even the US where the NIH mandated submission to open access repository after 12 months).
zerostar07 14y ago
That's quite laughable given that the very article is written by the UK-based for-profit publisher (and part of the science oligopoly), Nature Publishing Group.
- AkThhhpppt 14y ago
  Nature has been an unapologetic advocate of open-access publishing for as long as I've been reading it.
  - ananyob 14y ago
    For the record, NPG actually supports the form of open access being put forward by the UK and the EU (check out the statements on their website). The company already complies with the 6 month rule and helps authors deposit in PubMed Central. It also runs a number of open access and hybrid model journals...

cx91 14y ago

I'm curious what the remaining costs of publishing are under such an OpenAccess policy. For the UK proposal, the Guardian article from July 15 [1] mentions article processing charges (APC) around GBP 2,000 per article, presumably paid by the institution to some private institution to manage the peer-review process. Of course, the peer-reviewing itself is done free of charge by fellow academics. The Nature post doesn't seem to address this point (unless this is what they refer to as "up-front publication costs" in the second paragraph). Either way, charges around GBP 2,000 per article for processing are hefty (especially given that the bulk of the work is done by the academics for free). Maybe one should ask the question how this figure could be driven down? [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-british-scientific-research?fb=optOut http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-br...

scscsc 14y ago
"mentions article processing charges (APC) around GBP 2,000 per article, presumably paid by the institution to some private institution to manage the peer-review process" I would gladly (and highly profitably) run a for-profit which "manages the peer-review process" for GBP 1 per article.
- ananyob 14y ago
  You'd be able to find 3 relevant peer reviewers for each article, get their comments, feed them back to the author, then make sure the article was appropriately amended prior to publication (or rejected if required) for £1 per article? Your time must be very cheap! Or am I missing something?
  - wtvanhest 14y ago
    Exactly. I fully support the open research movement as it will drive competition, new business models and spread quality research, but the review process is probably a very challenging one to manage. People will evenutally solve this problem parts at a time, but I wouldn't put a £1 per article price tag on it yet.
- 14y ago