An article in the New York Times of September 18th describes growing resistance to high-cost, commercially produced journals. It opens with the following:
After decades of healthy profits, the scholarly publishing industry now finds itself in the throes of a revolt led by the most unlikely campus revolutionaries: the librarians.
Primary focus is the pushback in the UK to package deals with Elsevier and similar publishers, and the growth of open access publishing. The article quotes Sir John Daniel, president of the Commonwealth of Learning:
“I’ve seen it from both sides,” said Sir John, who was once briefly on the board of Blackwell. “I saw the vast industry built up from publicly funded research, and it was never clear to me what value was being added. But if you needed the material, they had you over a barrel.”
His view that open access scholarly publishing is a matter of international justice has become increasingly influential.
The UI Libraries plan to observe open access week, which this year begins on October 24th.
