Chemical Informatics Letters

The Yale Science Library has withdrawn from BioMed Central's Open Access publishing scheme. There is a response on the BioMed Central blog. The publisher suggests institutions "set aside" funding for open-access page charges.

The Cambridge Chemistry Department publishes over five hundred papers a year, according to Web Of Science. Open-access page charges are covered by the Wellcome Trust, and the NIH already contributes substantial funds to publishing costs, but only a small number of these papers are funded from such sources. To move entirely to open access publishing, the department could "set aside" a small fund of about a million dollars a year. This could be partly funded by cancelling all journal subscriptions, including access to all journal archives and databases, but even this rather drastic approach would leave the small fund a deficit which would grow by hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. CEN estimates Cornell University would pay an extra one and a half million dollars a year if all its departments move to open access publishing.

Not all open-access journals require page charges. For example, the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry does not. Most publishers, however, reasonably expect to gain an income from their journals, and this could come from page-charges instead of subscription costs. This will mean that universities which publish a lot will provide a greater proportion of publishers' income and the proportion provided directly by companies will be reduced. The total amount of money universities pay to publishers may well increase with a move to open access. Scientists in less well-funded institutions and in developing countries may be able to read the scientific literature, but not contribute to it. Might this be the result of campaigning for more open access?

The current prices of journals are analysed on this website. Many Open Access Journals are available, including a large number of chemistry-related journals.