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Over the past five years, with the impact of
PLoS ONE and launch of similar journals,
the march of Open Access (OA) publishing
has gathered pace. OUP’s (Oxford University
Press) OA publishing dates back to 2004,
and while much has changed in that time,
our central ethos hasn’t. We are willing to
experiment with different business models
and disseminate evidence, we engage with
different communities, and we believe in
fair OA charges and subscription pricing.
On top of this, we’ve always sought to have
the most efficient administration of our OA
programme, and a user-friendly interface.
As we look to a future that involves, but won’t
necessarily be dominated by, OA publishing, it’s important to be aware that there is
currently no one-size-fits-all Open Access
publishing or business model. OUP does
not have a pro- or anti-OA stance – we aim
to experiment responsibly and respond to
the needs of the market – in areas where
our authors, our clients, and funders want
OA publishing options, we provide them. We
want to make it as easy and desirable as
possible for authors to publish in our journals
– in some areas this will mean gold OA, in
some areas depositing articles in repositories on behalf of authors, and in some areas
allowing flexible self-archiving.
For us, OA fits in with a wider remit of
innovation which extends to online presence, collection sales, usage statistics,
altmetrics (tools to track the scholarly impact
of research) and dissemination media. It’s
difficult to predict such an amorphous and
transitional aspect of the business, but we
would certainly imagine that in the next few
years we will be publishing more OA titles,
continuing with and enlarging our mix of business models, and using empirical evidence
gleaned from our many current operations to
inform both our OA direction and the advice
we give our publishing partners.
Rhodri Jackson
Senior Publisher, Open Oxford, Oxford
University Press
(This column reflects the personal opinion of its
author, not necessarily EGU’s.)
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Great Debate: Open science and the future of publishing
Traditional publishing models require that individuals or institutions pay publishing houses for access to peerreviewed scientific journals. This business model has recently come under scrutiny by proponents of Open
Access, where authors pay to publish in peer-reviewed journals and content is subsequently free to the user.
Open Access activists argue that the activities of traditional publishing houses, specifically the services they
provide to the scientific community, do not justify the magnitude of revenues obtained. Furthermore, Open Access proponents oppose the traditional business model on moral grounds, claiming it is wrong to withhold access to research that could potentially improve or save lives. Established publishers, on the other hand, argue
that there are real costs to them in providing high-quality publications and services, and that they support the
principle of access for all but sustainable approaches are needed to provide this access so that high-quality
publications continue to be sustainable. Recently, several leading academics have spoken out, even staging
a boycott of selected publishers. Open Access continues to be hotly debated within the scientific community,
in the media, and by the wider public. The aim of this debate is to critically examine the available publishing
models and to explore the potential impact of Open Access on the future of scientific publishing.
Rhodri Jackson (Oxford University Press), Angelika Lex (Elsevier), Damian Pattinson (PLoS ONE), Erik
Merkel-Sobotta (Springer), Caroline Sutton (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association), and Martin
Rasmussen (Copernicus) are the panelists in this debate chaired by Edvard Glücksman, EGU’s Science Communications Fellow.
GDB1, room 20, 13:30–15:00
A Catfish Sleeps – Tohoku, photographs in Japan 2009–
2011: before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake
This year’s General Assembly features a special photo exhibition (US3) documenting the devastation left behind by last year’s
earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. The exhibition will
take place from Monday to Friday on the blue level (basement) near
rooms 10 and 11. Make sure you don’t miss the talk by Stephen
Vaughan, the photographer, today at 17:30–19:00 in room 11!
Deep mantle mineralogy, geochemistry and geodynamics
The theme of this session, co-sponsored by
the European Mineralogical Union and by the
European Association of Geochemistry, is the
composition, structure, dynamics and evolution of the mantle. The event includes the
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Medal Lecture.
GMPV1.3/GD6.2, room 31, 08:30–12:00
Impact of solar and geomagnetic variabilities on the Earth’s lower, middle and upper
atmospheres
This interdisciplinary session covers various aspects of
external forcing, such as solar radiative variability or galactic
cosmic rays, and geomagnetic forcing on the terrestrial
atmosphere, weather and climate (tides, planetary waves,
etc.), and on the interaction of the various processes.
Modern geoinformatics and
education
This joint session is for both teachers & educationalists, and experts in Earth and space science informatics. Its main purpose is to fill the gap between
educationalists and experts in the conception of
geoinformatic tools to facilitate their implementation
in the education system.
EOS6/ESSI2.3, room 25, 13:30–15:00
CL2.8/AS1.13/ST6.5, room 15, 10:30–12:00 & 13:30–17:00
Meet EGU
This session is your opportunity to put a face to the
name and meet those behind EGU activities. All
meetings take place at the EGU Booth.
•Executive Secretary – Philippe Courtial (EGU1),
09:30–10:15
•Division President of Biogeosciences – Gert-Jan
Reichart (EGU12), 14:30–15:15
GeoCinema
Highlights
Room: GeoCinema
A breath of Venus
11:15–11:35
*
Milestones in soil science research
This session features speakers presenting new
findings that are accelerating the understanding
of soil systems, and are considered milestones to
the scientific development of this important field.
SSS1.1, room 6, 08:30–12:15 & 13:30–15:15
Our last Transit of Venus
11:55–12:05
*
Wegener Medal Lecture movie
13:20–14:10
*
Combating desertification – local
solutions for a global problem
15:05–15:15
Extreme meteorological and hydrological events induced by severe weather and
climate change
This session considers extreme events that lead to disastrous hazards induced by severe weather and climate
change. It serves as a forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of research approaches and results, involving meteorology, hydrology, hazard management, and/or applications like insurance issues.
NH1.1/AS1.16, room D, 08:30–12:00 & 13:30–15:00
*
VIRTIS, a space instrument
15:35–16:05
*
Green fire: Aldo Leopold and
a land ethic for our time
17:20–18:35
Future Internet: opportunities and challenges for the geosciences community
The Future Internet (FI) is part of the Digital Agenda for Europe’s efforts to deliver
economic benefits from fast and ultra-fast Internet and interoperable applications. The FI Programme presents a real challenge and opportunity not only for IT
experts but also for geoscientists. This Townhall Meeting will be used to present
the key characteristics of the upcoming core platform of the Future Internet, the
FI–Ware, among other discussion topics.
TM10, room 7, 19:00–20:00
Today’s Medal Lectures
• Ian McHarg Medal Lecture by Peter Fox
(ML9), room 25, 11:00–12:00
• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Medal Lecture by
William F. McDonough (ML13), room 31,
11:00–12:00
• Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young
Scientists Lecture by Stephanie Henson
(ML31), room 23, 12:00–12:30
• Alfred Wegener Medal Lecture by Michael
Ghil (ML1), room D, 12:15–13:15
• Geomorphology Outstanding Young Scientist Award & Penck Lecture by V. Vanacker
(ML32), room 21, 13:30–14:30
• Fridtjof Nansen Medal Lecture by
Pierre-Yves Le Traon (ML20), room D,
15:30–16:30
• Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal Lecture by Adrian
Simmons (ML4), room 14, 19:00–20:00
• Augustus Love Medal Lecture by Yanick
Ricard (ML11), room 30, 19:00–20:00
• John Dalton Medal Lecture by Kurth Roth
(ML14), room 33, 19:00–20:00
• Louis Néel Medal Lecture by James R.
Rice (ML16), room 36, 19:00–20:00
• Louis Agassiz Medal Lecture by Ian R.
Joughin (ML27), room 5, 19:00–20:00
Research and development in nuclear
explosion monitoring
Mediterranean climate: from past to
future
This session includes contributions regarding all aspects
of detecting, locating and characterising nuclear explosions and releases and their aftermath in all relevant
fields of research, including seismology, infrasound,
hydroacoustics, nuclear physics and atmospheric
backtracking.
This MedCLIVAR session offers a forum to present
research on the Mediterranean climate considering different time scales and different components.
MedCLIVAR is an international programme which
aims to coordinate and promote the study of the
Mediterranean climate.
SM3.1/AS4.20, room 26, 10:30–12:00 & 13:30–15:00
The Alpine–Himalayan convergence zone: from the Mediterranean to SE Asia
The Mediterranean–Middle East–Himalaya region is an exceptional natural laboratory for the study of various
stages of the evolution of a plate margin. This session’s programme begins in the Western Mediterranean and
works eastwards, though the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East to, and including, the Himalayas and
Tibet. Contributions from all disciplines that study (aspects of) the evolution of this region feature in this session.
TS6.1/GD5.5, room 12, 08:30–12:00 & 13:30–17:00
Stay connected!
EGU Today is produced by the EGU Press
Office at the General Assembly. If you have
comments or questions, please e-mail
EGU’s Media and Communications Officer
Bárbara T. Ferreira at [email protected].
The online version of the newsletter is available at www.egu2012.eu/egu_today.html.
CL4.3, room 16, 08:30–12:00 & 13:30–15:15
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