Researchers publishing in the four principal journals of the Entomological
Society of America (ESA) have embraced the opportunity to pay for
immediate, permanent, toll-free access to the PDF files of their published
articles. The price is currently 75% of the price of 100 paper reprints,
which were, in the past, bought by more than 90% of ESA authors (and which
are a notably poorer value).
For the March and April issues of the four journals, authors paid for
immediate free Web access to 59% of the articles--up from 42% in January
and February and 24% for all of 2000.
I am for any strategy that speeds the transition to free access, but both
boycotts to force publishers to change and self-archiving make authors and
their publishers adversaries. In offering a service that authors want, at
a fair price, ESA is demonstrating that the change to free access can be
mutually beneficial and market-driven. I look forward to other societies
soon offering this service that their authors/members want.
For more on a market-driven transition to free access, see
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/tjwonwww.htm.
Tom Walker
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Thomas J. Walker
Department of Entomology & Nematology
PO Box 110620 (or Natural Area Drive)
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620
E-mail: tjw_at_ufl.edu FAX: (352)392-0190
Web:
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/tjwbib/walker.htm
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Received on Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT