Abstract

Martin van der Weyden

The purpose of publishing is to inform, interpret, criticise, confirm, refute and integrate knowledge. At the centre of the activity are peer review journals, catering for clinical or basic research output. Until recently, publishing was a sedate and scholarly calling, but some 10 years ago this serene world was shattered by a number of developments including:

• a funding crisis for institutional libraries brought about by the explosive growth of journals.
• a coalescence of journals under monopolistic banners such as Elsevier, Blackwell Science and Oxford University Press.
• the prices of journals marketed by publishing monopolies were well above the inflation rate, and included a practice of marketing non-negotiable journal packages.
• political demands that any research funded by the tax payer should be freely accessible to the public.

Currently, there are in excess of 1000 open access online publications, with the publications of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) more prominent.

Perceptions accompanying the OAOLP movement include:

• it is an untested business model.
• it is dependent on philanthropic and government support.
• it promotes quantity ahead of quality.
• the visibility, speed of publication, and free access to articles as published through OAOLP, are not reflected in the impact factor(s) of online journals.

OAOLP is a movement in evolution. Whether it will lead to a demise of traditional journals remains to be seen.