NRC article about differing views on open access

Negotiations with Elsevier and Springer about open access publishing have produced different responses, prompting the NRC Handelsblad to publish a lengthy background article on the subject on Saturday 10 January 2015. The article is based on interviews with interested parties, including researchers and negotiators.

The negotiators (VSNU/UKB) are seeking to bring about the transition to open access as part of the current negotiations with publishers about subscriptions to academic journals. This is a good opportunity to achieve open access via the ‘golden road’, in line with the prevailing culture of academic citation. At present, this is done through ‘hybrid’ journals, in which some articles are openly accessible, while others can only be accessed through subscriptions. Costs for universities during this transition process must not be allowed to rise substantially.

The article can be found in Dutch on the NRC Handelsblad website.