Royal Society warns of OA’s ‘disastrous consequences’

Scientific association, the Royal Society, is embroiled in controversy after it threw its backing behind commercial publishers and warned authors that open access will damage science.

Last month, a fierce debate developed on related list-servs and an open letter from 41 of its members demanded that the Royal Society withdraw its statement.

“Funders may be forcing scientific researchers to change the way they publish scientific papers so quickly that disastrous consequences could result,” the Royal Society states in its position statement on the Research Councils UK (RCUK) proposal that papers arising from publicly funded research should be placed in open access institutional repositories (IRs).

The eight research councils which make up the RCUK hope to have a final position statement by the end of January, which the Department of Trade and Industry will ratify.

The Royal Society has entered the consultation process late and calls on funders to “undertake a proper study before making researchers deposit papers about their work in open access journals, archives and IRs.”

Painting a doom-laden picture, the Royal Society said new publishing models could disrupt researchers and force the closure of existing peer reviewed journals. “The worst case scenario is the introduction of new journals, archives and IRs that cannot be sustained in the long term.”

Fellows of the Society have reacted angrily with an open letter to Lord Martin Rees, president of the society, expressing their “disappointment” and accusing the society of trying to delay the implementation of the RCUK policy. This is the latest battle over RCUK policy, over the summer ALPSP and the RCUK clashed ( full story here ).

“The Royal Society appears to be putting the concerns of existing publishers ahead of the needs of science,” the letter states.

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