"Author pays" publishing model: Only "bad"  authors should pay

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.54-c

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

Letter

"Author pays" publishing model

Only "bad" authors should pay

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—When he first published A la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust had to pay because André Gide, whoreviewed his manuscript, did not understand how good it was.Except for a few other notable exceptions like this one, inliterature, the authors who are charged are not consideredto be the most gifted ones.

Isn't this system a good one, even if imperfect?¹ Shouldn'tbiomedical publishing try to imitate this system? If yes, itis the peer review process that should probably change. Inparticular, reviewers should be paid and should not remainanonymous.

Joseph C Watine, consultant, laboratory medicine

Hôpital de Rodez, F-12027 Rodez Cédex 9, France j.watine@ch-rodez.fr

Competing interests: JCW is a bad author and appreciates beingpublished free of charge.