Peer review will become “the job of the many, not the select few”

Organisations that fund research are increasingly asking authors to place their research in open access repositories within a set period of their papers being accepted for publication in peer reviewed journals.

Although the number of bodies introducing such a requirement grew particularly rapidly in 2006, the momentum continues this year, Richard Smith, a board member of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and former editor of the BMJ, told the BioMed Central colloquium on open access in London last week.

Dr Smith cited a recent article showing that in the first month of 2007 four organisations adopted an open access requirement and five made pledges to adopt such a requirement, while in another five cases there were significant calls for such mandates …