It’s a Movement: Open Access Gaining Momentum

An interesting item from OutsellInc‘s e-mail newsletter: Critical mass for the Open Access movement is starting to build, and it feels like a
tsunami in the making. This week two high-profile supporters came on board:

- The Science and Technology Committee of the British House of Commons will conduct an
inquiry into public access to journal publishing in the scientific community, with the
goal of ensuring that researchers, teachers, and students have access to the content they
need. The committee is seeking input on the effects of current pricing policies, and
possible government action to support access.

- The United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society underway this week in Geneva
is endorsing Open Access as a publishing strategy. The group’s follow-the-money strategy
will be to persuade those paying the bills for scientific information – governments,
research agencies, foundations and companies – that publication in open-access journals is
in their interest.

Support for Open Access is pouring in, but it will look messy for a while. New
phenomena often take time to sort themselves out, but in time we will see the proponents
settle on the models and principles that will carry the movement forward.

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