The High Price of Knowledge

“The Promise and Peril of ‘Open Access’” by Lila Guterman, in The Chronicle of Higher Education (Jan. 30, 2004), 1255 23rd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037.

Think you spend a lot on magazines? Imagine if subscriptions cost you as much as some scientific journals cost university libraries. Brain Research, which is among the most expensive, costs more than $21,000 per year; at least 19 journals are priced at more than $10,000 yearly. Rising fees and budget cuts have caused some libraries to drop as many as one-third of their subscriptions. But many journals are indispensable to scientists—a fact, some librarians complain, that corporate publishers often exploit in setting subscription rates.

Last fall, librarians spotted a potential savior: “open-access” journals that publish original, full-text academic articles at no cost on the Web. But open access is not as “open” as it appears, and it raises a host of new questions for universities, libraries, and publishers.

The big question, reports Guterman, a Chronicle science writer, is, Who will pay the bills? Unlike traditional publications, open-access journals ask their authors to pay a publication fee of as much as $1,500. But more often than not this money comes from universities—and university libraries—not the author. Eventually, some critics say, this could cost schools—especially big research institutions—more than journal subscriptions ever did.

Open-access journals are already seeking new sources of financial support. One of the first organizations to advocate open access, the Public Library of Science (PLoS), founded by Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, imitates public radio, inviting frequent readers to become “members” by pledging their support. Another journal is experimenting with modified open access, keeping some work private, but allowing researchers who want their work “open” to pay an author fee (so far, only one in five authors has opted to pay).

For the time being, open access has complicated things for almost everyone. It seems to have allowed some libraries to negotiate with publishers for lower subscription rates, but libraries are now faced with paying author fees and maintaining expensive subscriptions. Researchers have shown interest in open-access journals, but many end up submitting elsewhere for fear that the journals may not last or that they lack enough prestige to help in the battle for tenure.

Yet in its first eight hours online last October, the inaugural edition of PLoS’s flagship journal, PLoS Biology, received a surprising 500,000 hits—and many supporters would suggest that the “movement” has not yet reached critical mass. Journal subscriptions will probably never be free, but even in its nascent state, open access is shaking up the $3.5 billion journal publishing industry.