"Author pays" publishing model: Strategy is needed to get  from A to B

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54-a

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

Letter

"Author pays" publishing model

Strategy is needed to get from A to B

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

EDITOR—With reference to the editorial by Delamothe et al,¹ last year my library paid €2.8m (£1.9m; $3.2m)for subscriptions to refereed journals. We could have savedthis amount in a completely open access world, as all articleswould be freely available on the internet.

Also, we had to pay for the refereeing, editing, and postingon the internet of the articles that my university published.It concerned 1413 articles. To the amount of €500 each,this makes €706 500. So for me there is no debate aboutthe question in which world scholarly communication is cheaper.Moreover, the ultimate result is far more accessible in theopen access world than in the subscription world.

The point is, however: how do we get from A to B? We cannotdo away with the old journals before we have the new ones inplace, with their impact factors and brands. . . . [Full text of this article]

Leo J M Waaijers, university librarian

PO Box 9100, 6700 HA Wageningen, Netherlands leo.waaijers@wur.nl