Academics to be able to publish their publicly funded research for free access via Internet

Momentous changes in the world of academic journal publishing seem likely to liberate potential readers from the exploitive burden hitherto, of having first to subscribe to an academic journal.

The change, basically, follows a recommendation by former university Vice-Chancellor Dame Professor Janet Finch and is reflected by an announcement by David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, that journal articles reporting on all research which is publicly funded should, from a couple of years time, be made available free to all readers on the Internet.

(https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/ictktn/articles/-/blogs/willetts-announces-plan-for-free-access-to-academic-research?ns_33_redirect=%2Fweb%2Fictktn%2Farticles%2F-%2Fblogs )

The change won’t take place until 2014. At present, British universities have to pay in the order of £200m annually to the publishers of these journals in subscriptions. In future the authors of the articles will be expected to pay some article processing charges (ACPs) which will cover the cost of putting their submitted work through the sometimes lengthy and time- and labour-consuming process of being peer reviewed, edited and made available online at no charge. As an indication of the kind of fee involved here, we shouldn’t become too complacent. It looks as though the typical cost of publishing an article could come to about £2000 per item, which is equivalent to the cost many a self-publisher pays for an entire book to be produce on a Print on Demand (POD) basis.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-british-scientific-research )