If production and distribution costs are vastly reduced through electronic publishing, they contend, online research findings should be available at no charge. Researchers should boycott journals that don't offer such open access, Brown said. His remarks were an apparent salvo directed at comments earlier in the conference from Pieter Bolman, PhD, president of commercial publisher Academic Press. While BioMed Central and PubMed Central will offer free access to research articles, CrossRef will charge fees to access journal content. Those fees are set by 33 member publishers who make articles from their journals available through CrossRef.
Somebody has to pay.
Bolman fired his own zinger at PubMed Central, saying that CrossRef has a better chance for success because the latter will offer users access to a wider array of journal content while generating income for its member publishers. In fact, he invited PubMed Central to roll its free services into those of CrossRef. In the meantime, scientific societies that publish journals as a main source of revenue have become vulnerable. During the past 5 years, she said, the ASCB has cut in half the proportion of journal-related income that comes from institutional subscriptions. They include attracting new noninstitutional subscribers, raising reprint charges, and focusing on ancillary services such as sponsoring meetings and developing public policy.