Royal Society to try open access science publishing

The UK Royal Society, the oldest "learned society" in the world, will try publishing some of its journals under open access licensing. That means that instead of being offered as expensive subscriptions -- that can only be paid by a few first-world, monied research institutions -- the journals will be released for free on the net, and scientist-contributors will pay submission fees to cover the cost of peer-review. This model has proven effective with other journals, particularly the all open-access journal Public Library of Science, which is now the most widely-cited journal in several of the fields it covers.

Last November, the Royal Society published a paper decrying open access publishing, arguing that no one should do open access because it would undermine the Society's market for its journals. This prompted an outraged response from the Society's members, who sent an open letter to the organization affirming that the Society's mission is the furtherance of science, not the collection of subscription fees.

The open access movement has been helped by recent developments, including the decision by the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's biggest research granting bodies, that all articles produced through work it has funded will have to be published on an open access basis from October.

Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said he was delighted the society was making work freely available to all. "Maximum distribution of research findings is essential to maximise their impact," Mr Walport said.

Earlier this year a report by the European Commission called for research paid for by member states to be made freely available.

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