Open Access and the Free Flow of Scientific Information
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MATERIAL MATTERS
Open Access and the Free Flow of Scientific Information David J. Eaglesham The open communication of scientific results holds a central place in the scientific process. Scientific progress comes through public disclosure and open exchange of information, with members of the scientific community learning from each other in a collective act of mutual shoulder-standing. As part of this process, the ultimate test of all science lies in the Darwinian “free marketplace of ideas,” where peer-reviewed papers, published in the open literature, are tested under the scrutiny of the broader scientific community. Good ideas are expanded upon and grow, mistakes are corrected, bad ideas are abandoned and wither away. Publication is central to the scientific community. Like any other community need, this creates a business opportunity. There is money to be made in publishing scientific papers. A publishing industry has grown up around the scientific community like Virginia creeper round an oak. Scientific publishing was a $7 billion dollar industry in 2004, with profits in the region of around 34% for industry leaders. Like any other industry, it is driven to grow, and so the number of journal titles proliferates while the content in each seems ever more dilute. The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers estimates that there are now over 2,000 STM publishers worldwide, publishing over 1.2 million articles per year via approximately 16,000 journals. The price is borne by the enduser scientists, directly or indirectly. The cost of scientific publications to libraries and subscribers grew 180% between 1990 and 2000, and continues to skyrocket.* Current pricing is prohibitive for many *Figures come from the U.K. parliamentary report, “Scientific Publications: Free for All? Tenth Report of Session 2003–04, Volume I: Report,” HC 399-I, published July 20, 2004, by authority of the House of Commons, and accessible on-line at http://www.publications. parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/ cmsctech/399/399.pdf.
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 31 • FEBRUARY 2006
research institutions, even in the developed world. All of which is strange, considering that, in general, scientific publishers do not fund the science, do the research, write the papers, review for accuracy, or edit for quality. We do that. They just print the journal and then sell it back to us.
“There is a tantalizing sense that we are only separated from a truly seamless world of scientific knowledge by a bad business model for how we publish.” Modern information technology is changing this. It is removing from the publishers the burden of printing: now they just sell us the content and we print it. But it is also lowering barriers to information exchange and making it easier for the world’s scientific communities to work together seamlessly. The flow of information around the planet is relentless and unstoppable. And the scientific world is extraordinarily transparent. Searches on information are changing the way we think about problems.
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