APPENDIX 2
Memorandum from Dr Jean Pierre L Bayley,
Leiden University, Netherlands
In reference to your call for evidence as to
the shortcomings involved in the current system of disseminating
scientific information, I wish to pass on the following anecdote:
Recently a fellow researcher contacted me with
a request for a reprint of an article that I had published in
a specialist medical journal. As neither this researchers university
library nor my own has a subscription to this journal, I requested
a PDF from the publishers for my own use, this journal having
discontinued the custom of providing reprints to authors. The
publishers were willing to provide me with the PDF but at the
cost of EUR250. Not wishing to support such behaviour, I was forced
to send my correspondent an uncorrected proof. Although legally
correct, practices such as this demonstrate that some publishers
are entirely self-serving and are inhibiting the free dissemination
of scientific knowledge.
Personally I believe that the increasing use
of open access journals will reduce cases such as these and make
scientific knowledge more widely available to those who are now
not able to afford full access. Even leading universities such
as my own have been forced to reduce subscriptions in recent years.
December 2004
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