Entries with tag the finch group.

A UK-based working group has issued a report suggesting that the nation’s scientific publishers should adopt an open-access publishing model. Spurring the work was the question of why the public should have to pay to access journal articles about publicly funded research, which are typically found behind a paywall on leading publishers’ sites. The Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings says open-access sites should be established to publish papers based on publicly-funded work. Authors or the organization funding their work would pay a fee for a paper to be peer-reviewed and edited before being published online. “The balanced program we recommend will accelerate the progress towards a fully open-access environment both in the UK and in the rest of the world,” stated Dame Janet Finch, who chaired the working group. “It will bring substantial benefits both for researchers and everyone who has an interest in the results of their work. This report shows how representatives of the different stakeholder groups can work together to that end.” Representatives from journals including Nature and Science say the current process works well and adds value, while the new proposal that someone pay publication-related costs would lead to lesser-quality products. (PhysOrg)(BBC)(Research Information Network)