>From First Monday http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_11/willinsky/
Copyright Contradictions in Scholarly Publishing by John Willinsky
This paper examines contradictions in how copyright works with the
publishing of scholarly journals. These contradictions have to do with
the protection of the authors' interest and have become apparent with
the rise of open access publishing as an alternative to the traditional
commercial model of selling journal subscriptions. Authors may well
be better served, as may the public which supports research, by open
access journals because of its wider readership and early indications of
greater scholarly impact. This paper reviews the specifics of publishers'
contracts with editors and authors, as well as the larger spirit of
copyright law in seeking to help scholars to better understand the
consequences the choices they make between commercial and open access
publishing models for the future of academic knowledge.
John Willinsky is a Professor in the Department of Language and
Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, where he
directs the Public Knowledge Project (
http://pkp.ubc.ca). E-mail:
john.willinsky_at_ubc.ca
Barry Mahon, Executive Director, ICSTI, the International Council for
Scientific and Technical Information, Paris
Received on Tue Nov 26 2002 - 13:56:03 GMT