The (Scientific) People Shall Speak
David Dickson and Christina Scott
Funding to cover the expense of publishing research
in an open-access journal
Biologists and medical scientists in South Africa and a number of other
developing countries on the African continent have until April 15 to apply for
the first batch of funding to cover the expense of publishing their research in
an open-access journal - that is, a journal prepared to make the information
freely available to all who want it.
An international foundation established by Hungarian-born philanthropist
George Soros has agreed to cover the costs to scientists when publishing their
research in the new, open-access journals being produced by an American
organisation called the Public Library of Science. These journals are meant to
provide an alternative to the traditional, subscriber-pays model which has
proved prohibitively expensive for many third-world universities and individual
scientists.
Open Society officials say the new programme reflects their commitment to the
principle of free access to the results of scientific research, and in
particular to the potential benefits that open access models of scientific
publishing offers to researchers in the developing world.
"Scientists in poorer countries have been virtually excluded from the
journal publishing world," says Darius Cuplinskas, director of the
institute's information programme. "Open access journals will remove
barriers and make these scientists full members of the international scientific
community."
The new grants programme, announced by Soros' Open Society Institute, will
cover the costs of 12 months' institutional membership to the Public Library of
Science. The grants will go out four times this year to 50 institutions in
developing and transition countries (primarily former communist states in
eastern Europe). Academic and research institutes in several African nations
qualify, including South Africa and some other developing countries such as
Botswana, Swaziland, Ghana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, and in Francophone Africa,
Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire.
One question has been over the impact of large numbers of scientists from
developing countries who may seek publication in open-access journals while
asking for a waiver from the author charges billed by the journals.
"The debate about open access has shifted recently," says Helen Doyle,
director of development and strategic alliances for the Public Library of
Science. "Doubts about its value have been replaced with doubts about its
viability. This commitment from the Open Society Institute answers the question
of how scientists in developing countries will be able to publish in our
journals on a large scale".
Doyle adds that, in order to ensure that the peer review process is not
influenced by a researcher's ability to pay publication charges, a firewall has
been put in place to ensure that editors and reviewers are unaware when an
application for a waiver on such charges has been made.
The Soros scheme may provide an answer to critics who have challenged the
open-access business model as being unsustainable, but the initial grants are
only being offered for one year. Melissa Hagemann, the programme manager at the
Open Society Institute responsible for its open access project, hopes other
funding agencies will follow their example.
"If we sponsor an institution for one year, then we hope that it will be
able to pick up the payment itself the next year," says Hagemann, adding
that the institute is keen to stimulate the capacity in developing research
institutions to make full use of open access publishing. "It's a good way
of advertising open access, and raising awareness among these institutions about
what is possible."
More information:
To apply for grants, go to www.soros.org/openaccess/grants.shtml
David Dickson is the editor www.scidev.net.
Christina Scott is science editor at the SABC.
This article Copyright Scidev.net.
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