Soros scheme provides grants for scientists to publish research in open-access journal
April 02, 2004 Edition -1
David Dickson and Christina Scott
Biologists and medical scientists in Cape Town have until April 15 to apply for the first batch of funding to cover the expense of publishing their research in an open-access journal - that is, a journal prepared to make information freely available to all who want it.
An international foundation established by Hungarian-born philanthropist George Soros has agreed to cover the costs to scientists when publishing their research in the new, open-access journals being produced by an American organisation called the Public Library of Science.
These journals are meant to provide an alternative to the traditional, subscriber-pays model which has proved prohibitively expensive for many Third World universities and individual scientists.
Open Society officials say the new programme reflects their commitment to the principle of free access to the results of scientific research, and in particular to the potential benefits that open access models of scientific publishing offer to researchers in the developing world.
"Scientists in poorer countries have been virtually excluded from the journal publishing world," says Darius Cuplinskas, director of the institute's information programme. "Open access journals will remove barriers and make these scientists full members of the international scientific community."
The new grants programme, announced by Soros's Open Society Institute, will cover the costs of 12 months' institutional membership to the Public Library of Science. The grants will go out four times this year to 50 institutions in developing and transition countries (former communist states in eastern Europe).
Academic and research institutes in several African nations qualify, including South Africa.
One question has been over the impact of large numbers of scientists from developing countries who may seek publication in open-access journals and a waiver from the author charges billed by the journals.
"The debate about open access has shifted recently," says Helen Doyle, director of development and strategic alliances for the Public Library of Science. "Doubts about its value have been replaced with doubts about its viability. This commitment from the Open Society Institute answers the question of how scientists in developing countries will be able to publish in our journals on a large scale."
Doyle adds that to ensure the peer review process is not influenced by a researcher's ability to pay publication charges, a firewall has been put in place to ensure editors and reviewers are unaware when an application for a waiver has been made.
The Soros scheme may provide an answer to critics who have challenged the open-access business model as being unsustainable, but the initial grants are being offered for a year.
Melissa Hagemann, programme manager at the Open Society Institute responsible for its open access project, hopes other funding agencies will follow their example. "If we sponsor an institution for a year, we hope it will be able to pick up the payment itself the next year," says Hagemann, adding the institute was keen to stimulate the capacity in developing research institutions to make full use of open access publishing.
"It's a good way of advertising open access, and raising awareness ... about what is possible."
