EDITORIAL |
Open Access
While Open Access has become a major movement in the field of scientific publications, there is little agreement on what Open Access is or how it eventually will be implemented. Authors, readers, librarians, and publishers respond differently (see links below). However, most proponents and opponents agree to some extent that Open Access means the elimination of subscriptions to all scientific and medical journals, allowing individuals to have free access to all online journal articles at any time after publication.
Journals such as the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry (JHC) that are published by nonprofit societies, such as The Histochemical Society, have historically been an important venue for scientific publishing in the United States. An important part of the mission of these scientific society-based publishers is the widest possible dissemination of science within their discipline. Scientific societies have followed a high standard of review and in-depth scrutiny of manuscripts due to the expertise represented by their editorial boards. Specifically, the JHC has a long history of publishing high-impact articles in the fields of histochemistry, cytochemistry, and cell biology. In 1997 the JHC was an early convert to online publishing in partnership with HighWire Press at Stanford University. In the past year, the JHC archived articles back to 1992 (which are now available online in full text searchable form) and the Journal is in the process of converting all previously published articles for free online access. Also, in the last year, the JHC reduced the time that online articles are covered by subscription to one year; all online JHC articles older than one year are now available free.
In March 16, 2004, a group of not-for-profit society-based publishers drafted a document that outlines their position in the discussion of Open Access. This document, titled the "Washington DC Principles for Free Access to Science," highlights the fact that many of the not-for-profit society-based publishers already have been providing free access to articles for some time. The Histochemical Society is a signatory to this document along with 47 other scientific societies. It is important for readers of the JHC and members of the Histochemical Society to read these principles.
Washington DC Principles for Free Access to Science
As scholarly, not-for-profit publishers, we reaffirm our commitment to innovative and independent publishing practices and to promoting the wide dissemination of information in our journals. Not-for-profit scientific, technical, and medical publishers are an integral part of the broader scholarly communities supporting scientists, researchers, and clinicians. We work in partnership with scholarly communities to ensure that these communities are sustained and extended, science is advanced, research meets the highest standards, and patient care is enhanced with accurate and timely information.
We continue to support broad access to the scientific and medical literature through the following publishing principles and practices.
1. As not-for-profit publishers, we see it as our mission to maintain and enhance the independence, rigor, trust, and visibility that have established scholarly journals as reliable filters of information emanating from clinical and laboratory research.
2. As not-for-profit publishers, we reinvest all of the revenue from our journals in the direct support of science worldwide, including scholarships, scientific meetings, grants, educational outreach, advocacy for research funding, the free dissemination of information for the public, and improvements in scientific publishing.
3. As not-for-profit publishers, we have introduced and will continue to support the following forms of free access:
Selected important articles of interest are free online from the time of publication;
The full text of our journals is freely available to everyone worldwide either immediately or within months of publication, depending on each publisher's business and publishing requirements;
The content of our journals is available free to scientists working in many low-income nations;
Articles are made available free online through reference linking between these journals;
Our content is available for indexing by major search engines so that readers worldwide can easily locate information.
4. We will continue to work to develop long-term preservation solutions for online journals to ensure the ongoing availability of the scientific literature.
5. We will continue to work with authors, peer-reviewers, and editors for the development of robust online and electronic tools to improve efficiency of their important intellectual endeavors.
6. We strongly support the principle that publication fees should not be borne solely by researchers and their funding institutions, because the ability to publish in scientific journals should be available equally to all scientists worldwide, no matter what their economic circumstances.
7. As not-for-profit publishers, we believe that a free society allows for the co-existence of many publishing models, and we will continue to work closely with our publishing colleagues to set high standards for the scholarly publishing enterprise.
The DC Principles are available on the web at http://www.dcprinciples.org/
The current groundswell for Open Access has focused on the issue of access to articles and has largely ignored the details involved in implementation of the policy. In particular, Open Access proponents propose that the current subscription revenue will be replaced with charges that authors would pay in order to publish in a particular journal. At this time the JHC is planning for the continued publication of the online Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry in an Open Access environment by examining models for increased access to the online JHC as well as models for the costs of sustaining publication. From conversations with librarians, and other HighWire publishers, we have learned that the JHC is not alone in preparing for this transition. It is probably safe to state that some form of Open Access eventually will be implemented. The JHC will adjust to this transition in scientific publishing in a way that maintains high quality and affordability.
We encourage readers of the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry to become informed about the Open Access debate and, in particular, be aware of the impact of Open Access on their publishing activities. The following links to Internet sites have useful information:
Washington DC Principles For Free Access to Science: http://www.dcprinciples.org/
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): http://www.doaj.org/home
Budapest Open Access Initiative: http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
Public Library of Science (PLoS): http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/
BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com/
NIH: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-064.html