RE: Monopolies in publishing

[Jan Velterop <jan@biomedcentral.com>]

Of course, editorial decisions and peer-review is what the 'labels' stand
for.

Who's paying for it is not the only difference between BMC's open access
journals and others, though. Who has access (just subscribers, or
everybody) is another one.

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Hulbert
To: jan@biomedcentral.com; liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Sent: 7/11/03 1:17 PM
Subject: RE: Monopolies in publishing

Hmm, I knew I'd regret this :-)

>>...they are preprints without a journal 'label sown into them', and in
the journals they obviously have this 'label'.  <<

Methinks you're being just a tad disingenuous here, Jan. The difference
between these two manifestations of the article isn't just a 'label'.
It's a label that's been through a process - peer-review This is the key
difference, I guess - although not the only one. Maybe this is worth
paying for?

The only difference between BMC and the vast majority of other
publishers is who's paying for this. And, as is often pointed out, how
much is being paid.

Terry