The number of open access journals is growing--true. The
number
of proprietary journals (aka "toll-access
journals") is also
growing. The number of OA articles in primarily proprietary
journals is growing. And the number of unauthorized
articles
from proprietary journals that are available on the public
Web
("leakage") is growing. I suspect the growth
rate for this last
category (leakage) is the fastest-growing of all, but that
is a
speculation. Growth, growth, growth, growth: why is
everybody
saying this is a zero-sum game?
Meanwhile, I happened to read that the CEO of Reed Elsevier
(which publishes much more than science journals, of course)
was
awarded a bonus of around $3 million dollars this year.
Sales
are strong, profit is up. OA hasn't much touched the big
guys.
It's the little guys who can get hurt, the not-for-profit
society
publishers, many of whom live hand to mouth, in part because
of
their less restrictive access policies, in part because of
their
less aggressive pricing. Are there any conspiracty
theorists on
this list who wonder if OA is a plot by the commercial
houses to
put their NFP competition out of business?
Joe Esposito
On 4/16/06, Heather Morrison <heatherm eln.bc.ca> wrote:
>
> My figures illustrating the dramatic growth of open
access are
> not meant to be a precise indication of the quantity of
OA items,
> only a rough indicator of the growth rate. Such a
precise
> calculation would require more resources than is
available to me.
[SNIP]
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