Research Archive JStor Moves Toward Open Access - Technology Review

"An organization that maintains a huge database of academic research plans to soon let the public view some of the trove of information for free—a big boost for the idea of "open access" to the world's knowledge. As part of its new program, which is expected to enter beta mode in the coming weeks, the JStor service will let anyone view articles from 70 journals after registering with the website. The reader then can view up to three documents at a time in a "frame" on the site. There are some limitations. For one thing, the free access won't let readers download or print the articles; those privileges will still be reserved for people who buy the articles or are affiliated with schools and libraries that pay for JStor subscriptions. Second, this beta program includes just a small portion of the 1,400 academic journals in JStor's online database. However, if it works out, JStor says, it could expand the program to most or nearly all of the database....JStor...began giving away access in Africa in 2006, and in other poor parts of the world in 2008. Last summer it made old, out-of-copyright articles available for free. But none of those efforts was as far-reaching as the new program, which JStor calls "Register & Read." ...JStor cautions that Register & Read will be an experiment. If it doesn't work for the scholarly societies and other organizations that own the content that JStor makes available online, Register & Read might have to be scaled back or modified, JStor's leaders say. But Guthrie told TR that overall, JStor and academic publishers had reached a point where it was wise to try creative methods of enabling access. A scholarly society might now lose out on $30 sales of journal articles but find that widening the exposure to those articles increases their dues-paying memberships. "We all have to disrupt ourselves," he said."