Bibcode
Mahoney, Terence J.
Referencia bibliográfica
Future Professional Communication in Astronomy, Proceedings of the Colloquium held at the Palace of the Academies, Brussels, 19-13 June, 2007. Edited by André Heck and Léo Houziaux. Bruxelles: Académie Royale de Belgique, 2007, p. 143
Advertised on:
0
2007
Número de citas
1
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
There is increasing pressure on academics and researchers to publish the
results of their investigations in open access journals. Indeed, some
funding agencies make open access publishing a basic requirement for
funding projects, and the EU is considering taking firm steps in this
direction. I argue that astronomy is already one of the most open of
disciplines, and that access - both to the general public (in terms of a
significantly growing outreach effort) and to developing countries
(through efforts to provide computing facilities and Internet access, as
well as schemes to provide research centres of limited resources with
journals) - is becoming more and more open in a genuine and lasting way.
I further argue that sudden switches to more formal kinds of open access
schemes could cause irreparable harm to astronomical publishing. Several
of the most prestigious astronomical research journals (e.g. MN, ApJ,
AJ) have for more than a century met the publishing needs of the
research community and continue to adapt successfully to changing
demands on the part of that community. The after-effects of abrupt
changes in publishing practices - implemented through primarily
political concerns - are hard to predict and could be severely damaging.
I conclude that open access, in its current acceptation, should be
studied with great care and with sufficient time before any
consideration is given to its implementation. If forced on the
publishing and research communities, open access could well result in
much more limited access to properly vetted research results.