Martin Frank said:
> > [Molecular Biology of the Cell]
The 11,000+ subscriptions that are represented in the graph, which grew
significantly over a period of time, actually includes both member and
institutional subscriptions. The slope of the line more closely parallels
the membership growth of the Society, not the subscription growth..... In
reality, most of us differentiate the two types of subscriptions to obtain
a clear indication of the impact of our free access policies.
< <
Medknow Publications in Mumbai is a commercial publisher, not a society one,
and thus has no membership growth to confound the issue. It has made most of
its journals OA online but continues to sell print subscriptions. Rather
better than it did before, actually.
Dr D K Sahu, CEO of Medknow, has made careful records of the use and
purchase of his company's products and claims that OA has:
- increased submissions
- increased international submissions
- increased downloads
- increased international downloads
- increased subscriptions
- increased international subscriptions
- increased citations
(see all the data at
http://openmed.nic.in/1347/01/SJPI_MPPL.pdf)
A collection of good quality but hitherto-obscure Indian journals is now
getting due usage as a result of international visibility. Usage has led to
more subscriptions. This publisher wasn't able to rely on membership or big
deals to aid his business but he has succeeded in bringing his products to
the attention of the potential audience very effectively. Medknow is
'green', too, obviously.
Alma Swan
Key Perspectives Ltd
Truro, UK
Received on Tue Jul 04 2006 - 07:41:58 BST