MAHSLIN NETWORK NEWS

A Quarterly Publication of the Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network

Volume 24, No. 1, January 2004

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING DEBATE

Librarian, Children's Hospital Boston

On Friday, December 6, 2003 from 12:30 – 2:00 the Department of Cell Biology sponsored a forum for the Harvard community on open access publishing. There was a stellar panel which included Marc Kirschner, Carl W. Walter Professor of Systems Biology, HMS, Theodora Bloom, Deputy Editorial Director, BioMed Central and Vivian Siegel, Executive Director, PloS on the open access side of the table and Gregory Curfman, Executive Editor, NEJM, Charles Jennings, Executive Editor Nature Publishing Group, Emilie Marcus, Editor, Cell and Dr.Williams, Journal of Cell Biology arguing for traditional publishing models. The primary purpose for this forum was to explore the impact of publishing in an open access journal versus a traditional journal and the effect on one's academic career.

The forum was divided into different segments moderated by different postdocs from the Dept. of Cell Biology. The first segment posed the question as to whether there is an open access problem. Dr. Kirschner agreed and then provided significant documentation from a recent Wellcome Trust document entitled “The economic analysis of scientific research publishing”. This report supports the stance that the current publishing model is not conducive to sharing scientific research.

Dr. Kirschner was in strong agreement with the report's main premise that the problem is almost entirely an economic one. He noted that the author rarely knows the details of journal publishing whether it is the cost or the online access policies. I would go further in noting a parallel between publishing and health insurance. In most instances the true consumer of the service be it the patient needing care or the scientist needing published research usually does not pay out of pocket and the! costs are generally hidden or at least unknown to the person using the service. Only when the charges become so high that the provider can no longer keep absorbing the increases does the actual consumer become aware of a problem. The incentive to keep costs low is usually absent.

The Wellcome Report explores the divergent needs of scientists to freely share their research versus the interests of the commercial publishers to please their shareholders. Even if you do not have time to read the entire report, the Executive Summary (pp. iv-vi) highlights the important points. The role of supply, demand, market behavior and electronics has reached a crossroads where many in the academic community are looking to find other ways.

Another section of the forum focused on embargo periods and why commercial publishers need them. Different publishers restrict access to their content for a specified amount of time which is typically in the six month range for the more scientific journals and often a year or more for clinically oriented titles.

Traditional commercial publishers like to say that they are freely giving away content, but the reality is that they do not lose customers with this open access hybrid model. As Theodora Bloom noted, the demand for the newest articles far outweighs the demand for the older articles even when you define older as being more than a couple of months from the time of publication. The curve starts out very high with a precipitous drop which levels off at a low consistent level of demand for articles older than the most recent few issues. Commercial publishers claim that it is expensive to create the online version of a journal, but Dr. Bloom estimated that they spend 14-28% in implementing access controls. Additionally, publishers create significant work and expense in negotiating license agreements with an institution/library and then providing the necessary support. Ultimately, keeping the non-paying public out is expensive. The embargo period is necessary to create th! e revenue stream for commercial publishers.

During the discussion on embargo periods, the debate focused on economics. There is significant disagreement between the commercial and open access publishers as to what the true costs will be and therefore the current author charges ($500.00 in the case of BioMed Central and $1,500.00 in the case of PloS) may not reflect the actual costs to electronically publish a paper. Charles Jennings of the Nature Publishing Group was adamant that open access publishers are raising false expectations as to the true costs of publishing an electronic paper. Dr. Williams noted that it costs Journal of Cell Science $2,700.00 per article published, and if they were to go entirely with the open access model, the projected charge is $8,000.00. Half of their revenue comes from subscriptions. Charles Jennings noted that the prestige of a journal factors into the cost. The more selective journals tend to review and reject many more papers than lesser quality journals, and these higher c! osts will be born by the authors being published. Some journals provide editorial content, news and even paid review articles and the costs for this added material may need to be rolled into author charges. The discussion touched on the need to develop a valid business model for open access. This is complicated as there is not a great deal of data to rely on. The traditional publishers focused on long-term funding issues.

Dr. Kirshner closed the program by re-addressing the primary issue of what effect publishing in open access journals might have on an academic career. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, his remarks were brief and only indirectly addressed the career impact piece. He clearly feels that this is an opportunity to break current barriers and to spearhead change, and he encouraged the audience to bring about this change. His vision for the future is the creation of a common database of publications with good full-text searching capabilities. He would like to see the myth that publishing in a certain journal or journals is the only way to career advancement.

For more information on Open Access Publishing: Wellcome Trust Report: The economic analysis of scientific research publishing (2003)

Crawford BD. Open-access publishing: where is the value? Lancet. 362:1578-80 (2003) Crawford, who works for John Wiley, offers the publisher's side with an emphasis on journal quality and the value of information.

Tamber PS. Open access to peer-reviewed research: making it happen. Lancet. 362:1575-7 (2003) Brief summary of the difficulties with the paid subscription model and strong support for open access.

21st-century biomedical journals: failures and futures [editorial]. Lancet 362:1510-2 (2003)

Cox J. Scholarly publishing practice: the ALPSP report on academic journal publishers' policies and practices in online publishing (2003). The summary is available at: http://www.alpsp.org/publications/pub7.htm

Malakoff D. Opening the books on open access. Science. 302:550-4 (2003) Focuses on the debut of PLoS Biology with a brief description of the Sabo Bill.

Watt FM. Non-profit publishing: open access and the end of copyright transfer. J Cell Sci. 117:1 (2004) Describes the hybrid open access option offered by some non-open access publishers such as Company of Biologists and Oxford Journals. Also included is information about the institution of a licensing agreement with authors instead of copyright transfer.

Halsted CH. Copyright protection and open access. Am J Clin Nutr 78:899-901 (2003) Interesting perspective from a society publisher with contradictory figures on the cost to publish an article.

MEMBERSHIP: MESSAGE FROM BONNIE HSU, MEMBERSHIP CHAIR

2004 membership renewal will be mailed to you the last week of December. This year, we'll still include the option for you to pay for the annual meeting on April 15, 2004. You may write one check for both dues and meeting. We'll post a copy on the web page too.

Also, we have recently updated the MAHSLIN web site Membership Directory. Please take a look and report any mistake or discrepancy to us.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Bonnie Hsu hsub@southcoast.org

FREE WORKSHOPS FROM THE NATIONAL NETWORK OF LIBRARIES OF MEDICINE By Michelle Eberle

Did you know that the National Network of Libraries of Medicine offers free workshops on National Library of Medicine resources to libraries, health professionals and consumers throughout New England? Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator, and Michelle Eberle, Consumer Health Information Coordinator teach workshops on PubMed, MEDLINEplus, TOXNET, ToxTown, and NIH Senior Health free of charge to NN/LM member libraries.

Some ideas for workshops include:

Workshops for senior citizens on NIH Senior Health

To schedule a free educational workshop for your institute, contact:

Michelle Eberle, Consumer Health Information Coordinator, at michelle.eberle@umassmed.edu or 508-856-2435

Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator, at donna.berryman@umassmed.edu or 508-856-5962

PEOPLE AND PLACES

“After 25 years of service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (formerly New England Deaconess Hospital), Paul Vaiginas retired on Friday, September 26th.  Paul has asked me to make this announcement after the fact as he wished to leave quietly and without fanfare.  Besides, he told me that he considers his induction into the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame in 2002 to be his swansong.  At that time, Paul was happy to be able to address the MAHSLIN community and he was grateful for the professional recognition he received. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to work with Paul since the Beth Israel and Deaconess merger in 1996.  He made that transition and the most recent library merger so much easier, he kept me sane! 

 

“I know that Paul will truly be enjoying his retirement!  If you would like to drop a card, wish him well, etc., I have Paul's home address and would be happy to share.” -- Margo Coletti, Medical Library Services Director

The Morrill Biological Sciences Library, 214 Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts/Amherst was permanently closed at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2003. The services and staff will move to the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library (ISEL), formerly the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library, on the 2nd Floor of the Lederle Graduate Research Center Lowrise, beginning Monday, December 22 at 9 a.m. The Morrill collection will be merged into ISEL during Intersession 2003-2004. During this transition, items from Morrill will not be consistently available. Faculty, students, or researchers who plan to use materials from the Morrill collection during Intercession should check them out before the facility closes on December 19th. Morrill materials may be returned to ISEL or the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Donna Beales of Lowell General Hospital Health Science Library was published in the Most Recent Chicken Soup for the Soul ™ title, “Chicken Soup to Inspire the Body and Soul.” Her story is entitled “A Matter of Perspective.” Lowell General is mentioned in the bio at the end of the book.

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