BMJ  2003;327:53-54 (5 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.53-b

Letter

"Author pays" publishing model

NHS authors now enjoy free open access publication

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In response to the editorial by Delamothe et al,1 Bates asks how likely it is that the NHS will pay the publication costs of its employees (letter above).

The NHS recently signed a deal with BioMedCentral such that publication charges will be waived for all NHS researchers. Bates can now publish unlimited papers in BioMedCentral journals at no charge to him (provided that they pass the peer review process) and he will have the advantage of knowing that his papers can be accessed by anybody connected to the internet. A growing number of institutions worldwide are making similar arrangements with BioMedCentral (see www.biomedcentral.com/inst/).

Just as few researchers pay for laboratory materials, research students, laboratory space, heating, and lighting, etc, out of their own pockets, few would pay for publication charges. Rather, the charges would be included in grants or covered by institutions (using funds saved from reductions . . . [Full text of this article]

David C Prosser, director

SPARC Europe Oxford OX2 0JA david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk


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