The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) has welcomed the publication of the RIN report 'Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications.'
Commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN), the Publishing Research Consortium, the Wellcome Trust, Research Libraries UK and the UK Joint Information Systems Committee, the study by Cambridge Economic Policy Associates and Mark Ware Consulting is seen to a very useful contribution to the debate around the future of scholarly communication. STM is a founding member of the Publishing Research Consortium and was represented on the steering group of the project.
The study examines a number of scenarios surrounding the transition to greater access of the scholarly publishing system in the UK. The so-called 'Gold' (or author-pays) route to open access is the only access expansion model that the report considers to be fully sustainable. The 'Green' (or repository self-archiving) route is found to have significant risks attached to it.
According to Michael Mabe, CEO of STM, these results largely echo STM's views about the viability of differing routes to greater access. Further, he said that STM supports all and any models of access that are sustainable and ensure the integrity and permanence of the scholarly record on which progress is based, including Gold open access.
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