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Select Committee on Science and Technology Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 276 - 279)

WEDNESDAY, 21 APRIL 2004

MRS JANE CARR, PROFESSOR M JAMES C CRABBE, PROFESSOR JOHN C FRY, PROFESSOR NIGEL J HITCHIN AND PROFESSOR DAVID F WILLIAMS

  Q276  Chairman: Thank you very much for coming and playing the second half for us. Can I just say, as you noted, perhaps, in the first half, I tried to induce a little anti-diplomacy; you have one chance in this world to say what you have been saying in coffee bars, restaurants and in universities all your lives, so please, please do not feel frightened about saying what you believe, because it will help us in our inquiry and allow us to challenge some of the practices that are going on. So please do that. How would you respond to the Public Library of Science's contention that there is an inherent conservatism in the scientific community about scientific publishing that needs to be overturned? Professor Williams, would you like to take that one on? Are you conservative?

  Professor Williams: No, I do not believe I am conservative, but I do not see that there is any significant problem in S&T publishing at the present time. I think it is a very robust situation. I am an academic, I run a very large research group, I look at the functionality of my laboratories at the present time and I think they have been enhanced enormously in the last five years. My staff, my post-docs, my students have immense access to a wide variety of publications with tremendous facility. Comparing that to five years ago, the time saved in technology is very, very significant. I do not think there is conservatism here at all and I think it is in a very good position at the present time.

  Q277  Chairman: Other people on the panel? Do you want to add to that or concur?

  Professor Crabbe: Certainly in biology I would say, and I speak for colleagues not only in my own university but others that I know are at the forefront of open access—

  Q278  Chairman: You are supportive of it or anti?

  Professor Crabbe: We are totally supportive and we are, I would say, at the forefront of open access for scientific literature.

  Q279  Chairman: There is a split in the academic community, is there not? Some people are not in favour of it, we are told. Is that true, Professor Williams, or others?

  Professor Williams: As far as I am concerned there is a very significant split. I personally am not in favour of open access, and for a variety of reasons. If open access increases in popularity then so be it, and obviously it is a very competitive situation and I think that is very fair. Right now, in the way it is going—and I compare some of the journals which I see in my own area with that which I edit myself—I see a very big difference in quality. It is the quality of the science that is being published and the quality of the publication media that is of the greatest interest to me. I think there is a big split.

  Professor Hitchin: I agree. I think up-front payments in particular are a big issue. They create large problems for certain disciplines in one of the open access models.


 
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