House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications

In December 2003, the UK's House of Commons Science and Technology Committee launched an inquiry into scientific publications to investigate pricing, access and availability issues. Written evidence was submitted to the inquiry in February 2004, and on March 1st 2004, the inquiry began to hear oral evidence. See the online schedule for details of future evidence sessions.

The Committee will be looking at access to journals within the scientific community, with particular reference to price and availability. It will be asking what measures are being taken in government, the publishing industry and academic institutions to ensure that researchers, teachers and students have access to the publications they need in order to carry out their work effectively. The inquiry will also examine the impact that the current trend towards e-publishing may have on the integrity of journals and the scientific process.

The Committee is inviting written evidence on the following points:

• What impact do publishers' current policies on pricing and provision of scientific journals, particularly "big deal schemes", have on libraries and the teaching and research communities they serve?
• What action should Government, academic institutions and publishers be taking to promote a competitive market in scientific publications?
• What are the consequences of increasing numbers of open-access journals, for example for the operation of the Research Assessment Exercise and other selection processes? Should the Government support such a trend and, if so, how?
• How effectively are the Legal Deposit Libraries making available non-print scientific publications to the research community, and what steps should they be taking in this respect?
• What impact will trends in academic journal publishing have on the risks of scientific fraud and malpractice?

In announcing the inquiry, the Chairman of the Committee, Ian Gibson MP, said "Journals are at the heart of the scientific process. Researchers, teachers and students must have easy access to scientific publications at a fair price. Scientific journals need to maintain their credibility and integrity as they move into the age of e-publication. The Committee will have some very tough questions for publishers, libraries and government on these issues."

Here are Minutes of Evidence published so far. Note, the March 8 transcripts only became available yesterday (April 1, 2004).

• March 1, 2004 Witnesses: Mr Robert Campbell, President, Blackwell Publishing, Dr Richard Charkin, Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Limited, and Dr John Jarvis, Senior Vice President, Europe, Managing Director, Wiley Europe Limited, examined.
• March 8, 2004 Witnesses: Dr Julia King, Chief Executive, Institute of Physics (IoP), Mrs Sally Morris, Chief Executive, Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and Mr Martin Richardson, Managing Director, Journals Division, Oxford University Press (OUP), examined.

I thought the following was a very telling question - which of course was inadequately answered...

Q32 Dr Iddon: You do publish prestigious journals - I accept that - but what appears to be happening is this. When I look at my tick list as an academic, and I have to cross journals out that are of a lower priority order than the more prestigious journals, the more prestigious journals appear to be increasing their price almost deliberately so that you are forced to cross them off the list, and forced into bundling exercises in order to buy the ones that you really cannot do without. This seems to be a trend in the commercial publishing business that we have noticed.

Posted by Tom on April 02, 2004