RE: OA Now

[Richard Feinman <RFeinman@downstate.edu>]

These data are valuable and suggest that 35.3 % of the problem is 
not severe.  The question, obviously, is how many of the journals 
making up the remaining 64.7 % would be appropriate for a library 
that wanted to provide an adequate resource in endocrinology and 
are they as affordable and do they have as liberal an access 
policy as the four journals cited.

I picked an article, Cereal fiber and whole-body insulin 
sensitivity, roughly at random from the current issue of Diabetes 
Care ( 29: 775). Looking at the list of 27 references in this 
paper, sure enough 7 of 27 (25.9 %) are for Diabetes and Diabetes 
Care.  However, the remaining references include 16 different 
journals. I don't know what the costs are but I can't help 
feeling we are closing in on that Camry.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>
Sent by: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
03/29/06 08:34 PM
Subject RE: OA Now

The perfectly reasonable drive for more access to scientific 
information does not require a movement to OA journals.

In my field (Endocrinology) at least, there are far more highly 
cited OA papers from non-OA journals than from OA journals. 
According to ISI, there were 421709 citations in Endocrinology 
and Metabolism in 2004. 35.3% of the total citations came from 
only 4 journals--Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and 
Metabolism, Endocrinolgy, Diabetes, and Diabetes Care. The first 
two journals, from the Endocrine Society, publish reviewed 
manuscripts upon acceptance. The Society's Rapid Electronic 
Publication makes research papers accessible to subscribers up to 
12 weeks before the print and online journals are published. 
Diabetes and Diabetes Care are freely accessible 3 months after 
publication, and accepted manuscripts may be placed on acceptance 
in any institutional reposity. A Rapid Electronic Publishing 
option is likely soon. An institutional subscription to any of 
these journals is less than $1000--a bit less than the "price of 
a Toyota Camry" so often mentioned as the standard journal price 
in the general media.

By comparison, BMC Endocrine Disorders is not even ranked by ISI. 
It may well be a good journal, but the statistics aren't there to 
cause authors to choose it.

Thus the desire for freer access to information has been met 
within a traditional, sustainable, and proven business model. 
Researchers have asked for more rapid and open access within the 
framwork of existing publishing models, and their requests have 
been met responsibly. It's not surprising that there is not a 
clamoring for a movement to other journals.

Peter Banks
Publisher
American Diabetes Association
Alexandria, VA 22311
Email: pbanks@diabetes.org

>>> David.Goodman@liu.edu 03/28/06 7:44 PM >>>

Dear Richard,

Your last paragraph proposes a perfectly sensible course of 
action, and similar policies were even possible in the print era. 
The University of California adopted just such a policy in 2003, 
with the enthuastic support of its faculty* -- who then proceeded 
to ignore it.

It is often an easy question what a university ought to do, but 
It's quite another matter getting them to do it.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu 
dgoodman@princeton.edu