El acceso abierto: pasos adelante, pasos atrás y conflictos con editoriales | blok de bid

[Google translate] Open access: steps forward, steps back and conflicts with publishers

A new element of the open access (OA) situation is the open conflicts that some countries have with some publishers. The Nature of May 17 of this year reports four. The German universities with Elsevier, which is the oldest, and the ones that emerged in 2018: the Dutch universities with the Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing, the French Couperin consortium with Springer and, lastly, the Swedish Bibsam consortium with Elsevier. These conflicts are a differentiating element from the past and could help to bring about a definitive change in the system of dissemination of scientific articles.

Major research funding agencies are adopting pro-AO policies that oblige recipients of financial support to publish research results immediately and openly. To facilitate this, funding agencies allow researchers to use the grant money to cover the costs of paying for open publication (APC) in journals. Data are beginning to emerge on the effects of the trend towards hybrid journals, initiated with the Finch Report (as can be seen in the case of the United Kingdom in a report recently reviewed here) and these are easily summarised: we have created a new expense in addition to the existing subscriptions.