Guest guest Posted May 7, 2001 Report Share Posted May 7, 2001 From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...> Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 12:16 PM Subject: Scientists threaten journal protest ~ BBC > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1296000/1296750.stm > > > Thursday, 26 April, 2001, 14:38 GMT 15:38 UK > Scientists threaten journal protest > > Scientists want research results to be widely available > > By BBC News Online technology correspondent Mark Ward > > Scientists around the world are preparing to boycott scientific journals > unless they make old research papers available for free. > > This movement is not going to stop no matter how much the publishers scream > > Dr Ashburner, Plos group The strike has been called as part of a > larger plan to establish a vast online library of scientific research > material, much of which is currently in the hands of the journals rather > than the scientists who did the work. > > The researchers behind the boycott say the library is needed to preserve > academic freedom, stimulate study and creativity and ensure that science > stays free of commercial pressures. > > But the call to set up the library is meeting resistance from publishers > and academic associations, which are keen to protect their copyright on > scientific papers. > > In September this year, many scientists could stop sending in papers to > journals and refuse to renew subscriptions to them in support of a plan to > create a huge Public Library of Science (Plos) on the internet. > > New technology > > In an open letter, campaigners said: " this public library would vastly > increase the accessibility and utility of the scientific literature, > enhance scientific productivity, and catalyse integration of the disparate > communities of knowledge and ideas in biomedical sciences. " > > So far over 17,000 scientists around the world, including some Nobel > Laureates, have signed the letter calling for the establishment of the > library. Numbers are growing at a rate of several hundred per day. > > " I've never known a movement like this, " said Ashburner, a member > of the advocacy group for the Plos and a geneticist at Cambridge > University, UK. > > Dr Ashburner said the online library was essential if scientists were to > keep up with developments in their field. > > He said the amount of scientific literature in genetics alone doubles every > 10 years, and scientists needed sophisticated databases that could search > the full text of papers to aid their work. > > DNA example > > The Plos group wants the library to act like the GenBank repository which > makes DNA sequence information freely available. > > The idea for freely available repositories of papers was started at the Los > Alamos Laboratory by Ginsparg, who in 1994 set up a the e-Print > Archive to host reprints of physics and mathematics papers. Now, the idea > is spreading to the biomedical community and beyond. > > > The big journals are deciding how to respond > > To fill the library, the Plos group is asking scientific journals to make > the full text of the papers they publish freely available in the library > only six months after they have been first printed. > > They hope that the six-month delay will mollify those journals which fear > they will lose subscribers if the papers they publish are available on the > web too soon. > > Some journals, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences > and the British Medical Journal, have already signed up to the project, and > declared their willingness to put papers into the library. > > Peer review > > The group wants to set up the library to hold the papers, believing it is > better to have a single reference point rather than let them sit on the > websites of hundreds of individual journals that have widely different > policies of giving access to the papers. > > To achieve their aims, the group behind the Public Library of Science are > calling for a boycott of those publications that refuse to support the > library. > > The boycott is due to start in September and asks those who signed the > letter to refuse to renew subscriptions, and to refuse to submit or review > papers for journals. > > " The quality of the journals absolutely depends on the peer review > process, " said Dr Ashburner. " If the journals lose that it will kill them. " > He said the Plos group had not ruled out setting up its own journal to > publish the papers not being submitted to journals. > > Linking compromise > > But the idea is not winning everyone over. Only seven journals have signed > up, and some scientific societies that publish specialist journals have > declared their opposition. > > The American Society for Microbiology has said it finds the aims of the > public library group " too extreme and unrealistic for ASM to support " . > > Some fear that younger scientists will be unwilling to put their name to > the letter or take part in the boycott for fear of limiting their career. > > The two most prestigious research journals, Nature and Science, are > currently debating what action to take. However, Science has said it is > willing to support a compromise which puts a searchable version of a paper > into the library, but the links to copies lead back to the website of the > journal that originally published it. > > " [The library] may not happen this year but it is going to happen because > the technology is there and scientists will demand it, " said Dr Ashburner. > " This movement is not going to stop no matter how much the publishers > scream. " > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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