Response from Gordon Nelson, President of CSSP | Erin C. McKiernan

"The following is a response from Gordon Nelson, President of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), to my open letter. I received this response from Dr. Nelson by email on September 18, 2014. He has granted me permission to publish it here.  While Dr. Nelson and I may not agree on several points, I am very grateful to him for responding. It shows a willingness to engage in dialogue.  I think it is important others are able to read his views and consider both sides of the conversation. My hope is this will generate discussion that can lead to solutions for increasing access to published research ... Dear Dr. McKiernan ... Science, mathematics, and science and mathematics education societies over the years have worked hard to enhance journal access. Their journal prices are at a fraction of that of commercial publishers, there are institutional rates depending upon the kind of institution, there are special student and developing country rates for journals. Hybrid journals allow scientists to choose early access by readers if they desire it.  Editors are making key articles available for free.   And societies have worked to eliminate page charges to enhance access to their publications for submission by scientists from around the world.  Open access advocates continue to ignore the impact that proposals like FASTR would have on societies.  The revenues from journals help fund many STEM services including, career services, young scientist mentoring, meetings, awards, STEM education programs, public outreach, to name a few of their services.  The science community will be less healthy in their absence.  Proposals like FASTR provide a one size fits all approach, when data clearly show that journal half-lives vary by discipline.  The health sciences are not a good model for the rest of science and engineering.  What is the impact of $3000-3500 publication fees.  Where will scientists (let alone from developing countries) get that money. Grants are not going to increase. The impact is fewer publications and fewer students getting funding, hardly a desirable outcome ..."