Blackwell Publishing to Try Open Access Experiment
Blackwell Publishing, the leading publisher of society journals, has announced the launch of an open access publishing experiment, Online Open. The new "pay-to- publish option" will run through 2006, when Blackwell officials will evaluate its performance. Much like Springer’s Open Choice program, announced last year, Blackwell’s plan will create a hybrid system, in which open access articles are included in print subscription journals, with subscription prices adjusted, and Online Open articles will be freely available via the publisher’s online journals platform, Blackwell Synergy. During the trial period, the Online Open fee will be fixed at $2500 or £1250 (plus VAT where applicable). Any additional standard publication charges will also apply, such as for color images or supplementary datasets. Blackwell officials say that Online Open articles will be treated the same as any other article–they will go through the journal’s usual peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit. Articles will be archived for perpetuity and will be registered at relevant Abstracting and Indexing services and at CrossRef. Unlike Springer’s Open Choice program, however, authors participating in Blackwell’s Online Open program will not be required to sign over copyright to their online open articles, a key issue to supporters of open access.
Although Blackwell officials have yet to announce exactly which journals will take part in the Online Open trial, Dawn Peters, Blackwell Public Relations Manager told the LJ Academic Newswire that the journals owned by Blackwell and in the appropriate subjects will take part in the Online Open trial. "We expect the medical and biology journals to be involved in the trial, subjects where there is likely funding for ‘author pays’," she noted. As for the $2500 fee–less than Springer’s $3000, and more than pioneering open access publishers Public Library of Science ($1500) and BioMed Central ($525)–Blackwell officials say that’s also experimental. "Blackwell sought input from key societies and our Library Advisory Board in coming up the new Online Open service," Peters explained. "The fee is only a figure for the trial. It is not based on cost but at $2500 it is within what some funding bodies have indicated they are prepared to pay."
[Library Journal Academic Newswire (TM), The Publishing Report, March 10, 2005]
