Attacking publishers will not make open access any more sustainable

25 May 2012

The Guardian, Graham Taylor

Publishers fully support expanding access to publicly funded research but only as part of a model that is financially viable.

Much has been written about journal publishers over the past few months but unfortunately this has focused almost exclusively on one side of the debate: the desire for greater access to peer-reviewed research outputs, especially journal articles, which publishers are painted as somehow resisting and restricting.

To be clear from the outset, we fully support expanding public access to publicly funded research. One only has to look at what has happened over the past year, especially since the publication of the government's Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth and the convening of the Finch Group to recommend strategy for extending access to global research for UK researchers. This is a process in which publishers have engaged fully and are making great strides to promote enduring, financially sustainable, open access models.

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