| Homepage |
| Search |
Information saves lives because it is fundamental to public health practice. But the volume and complexity of knowledge and information has outstripped the capacity of health systems to function at their best without the support of information management systems. Therefore, electronic information and communication technology has become indispensable to cope with the overload of information. The author supports the cautious use of free and open source software to manage the bulk of information and save precious money with particular regard to resource poor settings. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60315-9 Shieber SM. Equity for open-access journal publishing. PLoS Biol 2009;7(8):e1000165. Neither readers nor authors would in principle disagree with the open-access approach, having articles available online without any access fee. But who should pay for the process? Commercial publishers, who have to sustain costs of editing, peer-reviewing, staffing, and marketing, could be sceptical about converting their journals to an open-access model, and could turn to “author-pays” approach. To improve efficiency and sustainability of the open-access process, Shieber suggests a “compact model” strategy, in which universities and institutions provide funds to pay open-access processing fees for articles based on grant-funded research. The aim of the proposal is to stimulate open access, improve equity, and make the process more competitive with subscription-fee journals. Will institutions and granting bodies be happy to pay? doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000165 © Copyright 2009 by European Association of Science Editors Top of Page |
|
|