APPENDIX 16
Memorandum from Biological Procedures
Online, Canada
Biological Procedures Online (BPO) is a scholarly
journal that publishes methods-focused research in the fields
of microbiology, biology, and medical sciences using the open-access
paradigm.
Recently, it came to our attention that The
Science and Technology Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament
is exploring the matter of access to scholarly journals. BPO's
position, that the open access publishing standard should be embraced,
will ensure that most of society will benefit. Governments have
a role to play in ensuring that society maximizes the benefits
afforded by open access publishing.
Open access benefits the scientific community
as information is efficiently disseminated. Academia has heralded
open access journals: papers are more highly cited, authors have
more avenues to publish, and readers are able to access information
without additional cost. Open access exists in reaction to escalating
subscription fees and a difficulty of some institutions to afford
access.
But does open access affect a journal's integrity
and permanence? Open access journals, like BPO, conduct their
publishing efforts like the established society journals. We ensure
that the work published in the pages of open access journals can
stand the test of academic integrity. In BPO's case, there exists
a stringent method of ensuring quality work is published. BPO
has an editorial board of 32 members strong from all around the
world and their expertise is as wide-ranging. Our peer-review
system is automated and online, providing editors and reviewers
a simple interface to conduct their duties. Using an online interface,
an author submits their paper and provides the names of seven
possible reviewers. An initial pre-screen step leads into the
review stage. If a paper does not have the necessary elements
required to be published in our journal or it appears similar
to work already published, we refuse the paper before it is reviewed.
Reviewers judge the paper on several criteria and render comments.
The peer-review process culminates in an editorial decision. Editors
base their decision on the reviews submitted and also use their
own judgment to uphold the standards set out by BPO. Editors will
reject, accept, or accept conditionally the paper. Our process
ensures quality and the reputability, form, and style of a journal
are not important if stringent peer-review is in place.
The permanence of electronic or online journals
is ensured through archiving agencies. In Canada, the National
Library of Canada (NLC) keeps a permanent record of published
work and provides the means for readers to connect to this work.
In the United States, PubMed Central (PMC) provides the same service.
This organization aggregates papers from several publishers and
provides open access and a search engine for these papers. Access
is immediate and specific. BPO has arrangements with both of these
archiving agencies to store and distribute our contents. In the
case of the NLC, the record is permanently held with the government
organization.
Governments should not only support permanent
archiving and aggregating of published information, but they should
provide grant funding that enables publicly-funded researchers
to pay author fees and publish in open-access journals. Making
it mandatory that publicly-funded researchers must publish in
open-access journals would ensure that the open access medium,
which benefits all aspects of academic research, will supplant
current standards. Currently, the United States House of Representatives
is considering this matter with their "Public Access to Science
Act." Governments should ensure society maximizes the economic
benefits of research funded by ratepayers.
January 2004
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