The Fallacy of Open-Access Publication - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"What can we as academics do to improve access to scientific research papers?

• We can support scientific societies by supporting their journals. When we have time to volunteer as a journal editor or reviewer, make sure it’s for a journal that is part of a nonprofit scholarly society.
• We should expect compensation if the journal is not part of a scientific society and is published solely for profit. Scientific publishers could pay editors and reviewers a flat fee for handling and reviewing manuscripts. Alternately, the company could waive the publishing fees for any future articles written by volunteer editors and reviewers in its journals. Compensation would probably also increase the quality of reviews.
• We need to support our societies, but also hold them accountable to their constituency. While small academic societies tend to look directly after the needs of their members, large organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science run their journals much like the academic megapublishers. The flagship publication of AAAS, Science, is notorious for restricting public access to important original research papers. Many of us are members of AAAS, and scientists serving on its board of directors can work for policies that more effectively serve the membership and the public.

We need to continue to promote open access for scientific publication. However, open access is not the solution to all problems in academic publishing. Our scholarly societies are capable of taking robust steps to serve scientists in this changing environment. The capacity of society journals to meet our needs will grow when we choose to publish in, review for, and subscribe to society journals...."