The United Kingdom ParliamentThe United Kingdom ParliamentAbout ParliamentMembers and StaffBusinessPublications & Recordsline imagesA-Z IndexGlossaryContact UsHelp
 HansardArchivesResearchHOC PublicationsHOL PublicationsCommittees
Advanced
search
Select Committee on Science and Technology Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 154 - 159)

MONDAY 8 MARCH 2004

DR NIGEL GODDARD, MR VITEK TRACZ AND DR HAROLD E VARMUS

  Q154  Chairman: Welcome Nigel, Harold and Vitek. If you could keep your answers short, it would help us through the myriad of questions we have. What is wrong with the existing publishing model?

  Dr Varmus: It does not take advantage of the opportunities offered by the internet on the one hand, to make science work much better for scientists by allowing them to make their findings accessible to the entire scientific community, and on the other hand, to use that information much more effectively by doing searches of digital information in large public libraries.

  Q155  Chairman: Is there a demand for change?

  Dr Varmus: Absolutely.

  Q156  Chairman: How big?

  Dr Varmus: Big and getting bigger.

  Q157  Chairman: It is growing every day, is it?

  Dr Varmus: From the scientific community and the public.

  Q158  Chairman: We heard last week that open access would actually have the effect of limiting access to those with e-access. How would you respond to this?

  Dr Varmus: There is increasing availability of hardware and access to the internet in all countries of the world; all working scientists have access. This will only grow and will grow faster as people realise they can get access to the entire repertoire of new scientific findings by using the internet.

  Mr Tracz: It is worth adding that the fact that we publish electronically does not mean that information cannot be distributed in print, in fact very commonly, particularly in the third world, it is enough to have one computer with internet access and then locally it can be printed and distributed. This often happens. In our case we know of many situations where people distribute the papers in print and in open access it is permissible.

  Dr Varmus: Things can be downloaded and mailed to people who specifically need them but do not have access, which is increasingly rare.

  Q159  Chairman: Will the big commercial publishers not just make the same profits but in a new way? They are not going to be blown out of the water, are they?

  Dr Varmus: Not necessarily, but the situation will still be competitive. The scientists have a few objectives, and publishing is a crucial element of the life of a scientist. They want to publish in the best places and they are willing to provide their material for free. All they want is to be read. They want to publish in the place which has the highest credibility among their colleagues. If a commercial publisher moves to an open access mode, it can make a profit and attract the best papers because the best papers are published there and it has a high credibility. That is possible.

  Mr Tracz: I am a commercial publisher and we publish all primary literature. The reason we do it is because we think it gives us a competitive advantage not a competitive disadvantage.


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2004
Prepared 20 July 2004