EC launches debate on the future of scientific journals

A new study looking at how the European scientific publishing industry can face the twin threats of libraries' shrinking budgets and an expanding internet was released at the beginning of the month.

The report, which was commissioned by the European Commission and prepared by the Free University of Brussels and the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse, argues that providing tax breaks for electronic publishers and setting up a pan-European non-profit research archive were two ways to safeguard scientific publishing while making scientific information available to all.

The 112 page report also recommends that archiving results should be made a condition of funding.

The study comes at a time when libraries and individuals are cancelling their subscriptions to traditional print journals and opting instead to look for information online. The report says that between 1975 and 1995 the prices of journals increased by as much as 300% over inflation and that these rises were accompanied by falling subscriptions. It is feared that the increasing ease of discovery of results through better search engines will further damage the viability of the print industry.

The study recommends a raft of measures to encourage scientific publishing to adapt to the new climate, including revising the unfavourable tax treatment faced by electronic publications by reducing taxes levied on sales or by giving research institutions tax refunds, as Germany and Sweden currently do.