"Author pays" publishing model: Answering to some  objections

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54

BMJ 2003;327:54 (5 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54

Letter

"Author pays" publishing model

Answering to some objections

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

EDITOR—Many readers' responses to the editorial by Delamotheet al are variations on the theme that authors cannot affordto pay to publish their work, especially young scientists andthose from developing countries.^{1
2}

This is a real problem, but the editorial described three actualor potential developments that would make it unnecessary forauthors to pay these fees.

Firstly, the editorial advocated that funding agencies treatthe cost of publishing an article as part of the cost of research.Not all research is funded, and not all funding agencies haveagreed to this policy. But if this model will work anywhere,it will work in the natural sciences, where most research isfunded. Moreover, funding agencies are seriously consideringthe policy to pay the processing fees charged by open accessjournals. If this is too speculative, then consider two solutionsthat already exist.

Secondly, BioMedCentral offers institutional memberships . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter Suber, professor of philosophy

Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374, USA peters@earlham.edu