Online Open - a new open access journals service from Blackwell

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

--NEWS RELEASE--

Announcing Online Open - a new open access journals service from Blackwell
Publishing

__________

Oxford, UK and Boston, MA - February 24, 2005 - Blackwell Publishing today
announced the launch of a new service which will benefit the authors and
readers of many of its journals.  Online Open offers authors the
opportunity to make their articles freely available to all users of the
internet in perpetuity on payment of a publication fee.

"Online Open is an integral part of our commitment to high quality society
publishing and our promise is to support any model which meets this end,"
said Ren� Olivieri, CEO of Blackwell Publishing.  "The calls for open
access publishing have encouraged us to offer a range of options from
which authors and readers can choose, including author-pays,
self-archiving, and subscription-based information."

The new Online Open service will be on trial through to the end of 2006.  
During this period, authors of accepted articles will have the option to
pay a fee of US$2500 or �1250 (plus VAT where applicable) which will
ensure that their article is made freely accessible to all via our online
journals platform Blackwell Synergy.  Online Open articles will be
published to exactly the same high standards as subscription-based
articles, following the full peer-review process and benefiting from the
same production procedures and online features.  Online Open articles will
also appear in the print edition of journals with an indicator pointing to
the free access online.

Bob Campbell, President of Blackwell Publishing, said, "It's important for
us to be able to offer authors a choice of how they publish.  Blackwell
developed this service so that those authors with the appropriate funding
and who want to make their article available through open access don't
need to find alternative publications for their work."

Blackwell Publishing's U.S. President, Gordon Tibbitts, noted, "Publishing
journals online is still in its infancy and we are likely to see a range
of business models emerge over the next 10 years."  He added, "The recent
NIH policy announcement puts the spotlight on self-archiving but we
recognize that some organizations will still want to try the author-pays
model."  Blackwell will share results of the Online Open trial with
societies and use the findings to further contribute to the journal
publishing debate.

The subscription prices for journals participating in the Online Open
trial will be adjusted according to the number of author-pays articles
that each journal expects to publish in the following year.  Blackwell's
subscription prices take into account any increase in the amount of
material we expect to publish in the journal in the next year.  We will
continue to use this information in setting pricing but we will only
account for material published under the traditional publishing model.  
Any articles published under the new Online Open model will be excluded
from this calculation as their costs will have been paid by the author or
the author's funding body.

Blackwell Publishing is consulting with the societies for whom it
publishes on whether they wish to be included in the trial of Online Open.  
The company will issue an initial list of those journals participating
within the next two months and will add any other journals as societies
choose to join.  Blackwell expects that most of the initial journals in
the trial will be in biology or medicine, subjects where there is likely
to be funding for the author-pays model.

Link to more details about Online Open:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/static/onlineopen.asp?site=1

Link to Blackwell Publishing's Position on Open Access:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/static/openaccess.asp?site=1

--About Blackwell Publishing--

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, partnering
with more than 600 academic and professional societies.  Blackwell
publishes over 750 journals and 600 text and reference books annually,
across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects.  The
company remains independent with over 900 staff members in offices in the
US, UK, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, and Japan.  Blackwell's
mission as an expert publisher is to create long-term partnerships with
our clients that enhance learning, disseminate research, and improve the
quality of professional practice.  For more information on Blackwell
Publishing, please visit http://www.blackwellpublishing.com or
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

--Media Contacts--

Dawn Peters
Blackwell Publishing, Boston
Tel: +1 781 388 8334   
dpeters@bos.blackwellpublishing.com

Emily Gillingham
Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 
Tel: +44 (0)1865 476425 
emily.gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com