Open Access | CDBU

"CDBU [Council for the Defense of British Universities] favours making publicly-funded research available and accessible. The problem that the Finch Report addresses lies in the already existing closure of access by the research and publishing market: some academic journals and their publishing houses are making great profits by over-charging libraries for subscriptions, while getting services (editorships, peer-review) paid for by the tax-payer who funds Universities. In short: there is a massive tax subsidy to those private interests. Finch thus provides the right answer (openness, access) but to the wrong questions. CDBU therefore holds that further consideration has to be given to: [1] Issues of academic freedom and equality [2] Possible reductions of, or restrictions on, the nature of research that is published [3] International platforms for UK-funded research publication..."