Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:05:45 +0530
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
Friends:
Here is the press release from the House of Commons Science and Technology
Committee on the subject "SCIENTIF PUBLICATIONS: FREE FOR ALL? Prof. Balaram
might wish to comment editorially in Current Science.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
HOUSE OF COMMONS
PRESS NOTICE
Committee Office, House of Commons, No. 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA
Tel. Nos. 020 7219 2793-2794 (Fax. No. - 0896) email:
scitechcom@parliament.uk
No. 63 - Session 2003-20 20 July 2004
PUBLICATION OF REPORT
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS: FREE FOR ALL?
The Science and Technology Committee today publishes its Tenth Report of
Session 2003-04, Scientific Publications: Free for all? (HC 399-I).
The Committee concludes that the current model for scientific publishing is
unsatisfactory. An increase in the volume of research output, rising prices
and static library budgets mean that libraries are struggling to purchase
subscriptions to all the scientific journals needed by their users.
The Report recommends that all UK higher education institutions establish
institutional repositories on which their published output can be stored and
from which it can be read, free of charge, online. It also recommends that
Research Councils and other Government funders mandate their funded
researchers to deposit a copy of all of their articles in this way.
The Committee concludes that the creation of institutional repositories is
an important first step towards a more radical change in the way that
scientific papers are published. Early indications suggest that the
author-pays publishing model could be viable and the Committee remains
unconvinced by many of the arguments mounted against it. Nonetheless, this
Report concludes that further experimentation is necessary, particularly to
establish the impact that a change of publishing models would have on
learned societies and in respect of the "free rider" problem. In order to
encourage such experimentation the Report recommends that the Research
Councils each establish a fund to which their funded researchers can apply
should they wish to pay to publish.
The Report criticises the UK Government for failing to respond to issues
surrounding scientific publications in a coherent manner. The Committee is
not convinced that it would be ready to deal with any changes to the
publishing model and calls for the formulation of a strategy as a matter of
urgency.
The preservation of digital material is an expensive process that poses a
significant technical challenge. The Report recommends that the British
Library receives sufficient funding to enable it to carry out this work.
Government needs to start work on new regulations for the legal deposit of
non-print publications immediately.
The market for scientific publications is international. The UK cannot act
alone. For this reason the Committee recommends that the UK Government act
as a proponent for change on the international stage and lead by example.
This will ultimately benefit researchers across the globe.
Chairman of the Committee, Dr Ian Gibson, said "Publishers are feathering
their nests with big profits whilst scientific journals are becoming less
and less affordable. Government has its head in the sand: it's about time
that it landed in the in-tray of the Ministers in question. Instead of
bashing all the alternatives, commercial publishers should be asked to
justify the current publishing process they use. The Open Access movement
needs to iron out the teething problems with the author-pays model. It's
public money that oils the cogs of the publishing machine and we want to
make sure that it's well spent."
Hard copies of the Report can be obtained from TSO outlets and from the
Parliamentary Bookshop, 12 Bridge Street, Parliament Square, London SW1A 2JX
(020 7219 3890) by quoting HC 399-I. The text of the Report will also be
available via the Committee=s internet homepage:
www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/s&thome.htm
<http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/s%26th
ome.htm>
Further information on the work of the Committee can be obtained from
Committee staff on
020 7219 2793/4. Previous press notices and publications are available on
our website.
Notes for Editors
1. Under the terms of Standing Order No. 152 the Committee is empowered to
examine the "expenditure, policy and administration of the Office of Science
and Technology and its associated public bodies". The Committee was
appointed on 12 November 2001.
2. The Committee's inquiry was announced on 10 December 2003 in Press Notice
3 of Session 2003-04.
3. The Committee took evidence from Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons,
Nature Publishing Group and Reed Elsevier on 1 March 2004; Oxford University
Press, the Institute of Physics Publishing, the Association of Learned and
Professional Society Publishers, BioMed Central, Public Library of Science
and Axiope on 8 March 2004; the British Library, the Joint Information
Systems Committee, Cambridge University Library, the University of
Hertfordshire and a panel of academics on 21 April 2004; and the Department
of Trade and Industry/the Office of Science and Technology, the Higher
Education Funding Council for England and Research Councils UK on 5 May
2004.
