Open Access Publishing and Citation Archives

Controversies about open access publishing and archiving confront issues of copyright and governmental competition with the private sector. Traditional publishers typically charge readers subscriber fees to fund the costs of publishing and distributing hard-copy and/or online journals. In contrast, most open access systems charge authors publication fees and give readers free online access to the full text of articles. Supporters of the open access “movement” object to the rising costs of journal subscriptions; share peer reviewers’ reluctance to do free reviews for journals rapidly escalating in price; and believe that scientific collaboration, advancement, and utilization will be hastened by free access to information. Traditional subscriber-pays commercial publishers and some scholarly associations object to most open access publishing because it may weaken the publishing industry and erode profits. Critics seek to limit free government-run repositories only to articles and citations from federally sponsored research; others oppose fees in the thousands of dollars charged to authors to pay the costs of publishing articles or view as unreliable foundation donations that sustain some open access activities.