The Observer | Business | Black arts of the science mags

How’s this for a winning publishing formula? A university funds scientific research; the research is turned into a paper by an author, who pays a colour illustration and reprint charge – say, £1,000 – and surrenders the copyright for the privilege of publishing his findings in a specialised journal. Peers review the work for free, then the publisher prints the article – and sells it back for a hefty fee to the institution where the work was carried out in the first place.

Welcome to scientific publishing. As the production and potential value of scientific knowledge mushrooms, so too has the small-circulation, high-price formula pioneered by Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press to disseminate it. Science is the fastest-growing media sub-sector of the past 15 years, says Morgan Stanley.

… Open-access publishers say the important thing is not who nominally pays the costs – in the end it all comes from the same, usually publicly-funded, pot – but how the research is used. ‘Everyone should have access to publicly-funded science,’ PLoS’s Harold Varmuss told the Select Committee. The impact of open access comes from the combination of instant access and searchability. ‘It’s about a fundamental change in the way scientific findings are recorded and used,’ added Tracz.