Abstract

One of the effects of the Internet is that the dissemination of scientific publications in a few years has migrated to electronic formats. The basic business practices for trading the content between publishers on one hand and libraries and readers on the other, have however not changed much. Scientists have in order to utilise the potential of the Web and in protest against the high subscription prices of mainstream publishers started Open Access (OA) journals and e-print repositories, which distribute scientific information freely. Most early OA-journals were run in a spirit of voluntarism reminiscent of Open Source projects, but recently some large scale efforts have started were the publishers regard the authors as their customers and sell them scientific publication services (including free access) for author charges. The recent launch of the Public Library of Science Biology journal was for instance noted also in the general media. Despite an increasing awareness among academics that OA would be the optimal distribution mode for publicly financed research results, OA channels still constitute only a marginal phenomenon in the global scholarly communication system, although their share of all published material is rapidly rising. There are many barriers to changing the current system. The aim of the panel is to increase the awareness of MIS scholars about the current state and possibilities of OA channels and to start a discussion about the many legal, economic, psychological and social issues surrounding the way scholars communicate with their peers and how the Internet is changing the situation. The panel participants include Bo-Christer Björk, Erik Sandewall and Grahame Cooper

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