News on the Open Access front
In June this year the American Physical Society [APS] has decided not to participate as a publishing partner in the SCOAP3 initiative launched by CERN as an Open Access possible model for the very international particle-physics community.
Of course, this does not mean that the APS will abandon its long-standing commitment to Open Access. However this decision signals, once more, how steep the road is to achieve sustainable Open Access for scientific publishers. Despite the universally recognised merits of the Open Access principle to grant unrestricted access to the results of publicly funded research, a simple solution concerning the transition from the current mostly subscription-based system for scientific publishing is not straightforward.
Notwithstanding the APS decision, thanks to the strong commitment of CERN and its availability to reassess the economic conditions of the remaining publishing partners, CERN believes that the SCOAP3 initiative will continue according to schedule, starting from January 2014.
Read the declaration on the APS website.
