Open Access between E-commerce and E-science - Observations to development and status

Abstract

Unrestricted access to scientific publication is a decisive prerequisite for scientific research. In view of the trend toward concentration in the publishing sector and of inflation, especially in journal publishing, the open access movement advocates free-of-charge access to publications and as well as to research data, software and digital versions of cultural heritage. Various business models (e.g. original or post-print availability on open access servers of institutions or specialist associations; author-paid publishing instead of or combined with (as hybrid form) subscription-based publication) offer a wide spectrum of commercial publishing schemes. An important factor for future developments will be whether research funding agencies are prepared to view publishing costs as an integral element of research grants. A further question is whether free-of-charge open access of publicly sponsored research findings will become standard. Unrestricted access is an important prerequisite for the e-science research environments of the future, which will offer new styles of scientific endeavor in connection with networked communication and data sharing. Open access is also backed up by new commercial ventures such as the Google strategy of providing scanned literature and thereby steering users toward Google links in order to increase its advertising revenue.