A major step forward for open-access publishing (at CERN)

ORIGINAL: CERN

Photo: CERN

Representatives from the science-funding agencies and library communities of 29 countries are meeting at CERN today to launch the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3) initiative.

At a meeting last week the CERN Finance Committee officially approved the award of contracts for the provision of peer-review, open access and other publication services for the benefit of SCOAP3. The consortium aims to provide unrestricted access to high-energy-physics (HEP) research literature in its final, peer-reviewed form, by sharing the cost of the peer-review service between funding agencies, research institutions, libraries and library consortia, while publishers make electronic versions of their journals open access.

"The Finance Committee's approval is a watershed, with a large exclamation mark!" says CERN librarian Jens Vigen. "After years of design and consensus building, we can now move on to the implementation phase of the project. This is the first time ever that an entire field is concretely moving towards open-access publishing."

The goal of open access is to grant anyone free access to the results of scientific research. But the current model of scientific publishing – where journal access is restricted to paying customers and reuse of material is hindered by copyright restrictions – is at odds with this idea. Traditionally libraries have paid, on behalf of their readers, for access to content. However, the service needed by the community is the peer-review and quality-assurance service, as in the field of high-energy physics community preprints of articles are generally made available online long before they appear in journals. SCOAP3 is putting this service at the centre, remunerating the publishing industry for it, while content will be open access.

"The issue is that people in our field don't tend to read the journals, they read the arXiv," says Vigen. "This said, peer-reviewed journals add an indispensable quality stamp. The new system enshrines the role of the journals in providing the peer-review service rather than repositories of content."

In the SCOAP3 model, HEP funding agencies, research institutions, libraries and library consortia, which today buy journal subscriptions to implicitly support the peer-review service, instead pool their resources explicitly to cover the cost of this service, while publishers make the electronic versions of their journals open access. SCOAP3 partners recover their contributions by redirecting the funds they currently use for journal subscriptions. 

With a projected SCOAP3 budget of 36 million Swiss francs over three years, 12 journals from 7 publishers are now on the list for a possible contract for the provision of peer-review, open access and other publication services. Over 6600 articles relevant to the field were published in these journals in 2011; this represents the vast majority of the literature.

"It has taken an amazing team effort to get here, with volunteers from the library community, research institutions and funding agencies working hard together to steer the initiative, alongside constructive discussions with the publishers of the field," says Salvatore Mele, head of Open Access at CERN, who convened the SCOAP3 Steering Committee over a year and a half. "This bodes well for the next crucial steps as SCOAP3 moves forward."

"I think neighbouring fields like nuclear physics and astrophysics might be inspired by this model in some way," says Vigen. "When we initiated the process six years ago, open access publishing was in its infancy – today it has become mainstream. We have entered into an era that will accelerate science."

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About SCOAP3

CERN press release: "SCOAP3 Open Access Initiative launched at CERN