Press releases
20 December 2001
Open access to research to be funded by BioMed Central's new Institutional Membership Program
A new scheme to help cover the costs of open access to biomedical research is being launched by BioMed Central on January 1 2001. BioMed Central, the publishing company committed to a policy of free access to peer reviewed research, is introducing a membership scheme that will move the cost of publication from individuals to their institutions.
BioMed Central's business model is based on the dual premise that all original research articles should be freely available and that the imposition of subscription charges by other publishers is damaging the communication of science. To meet the costs of publishing, BioMed Central will charge authors $500 per paper published (waivers will be available for those who can not afford these charges).
But to remove the burden on individual researchers, BioMed Central is inviting institutions to join as members. Membership will allow all research staff and students within an institution to submit an unlimited amount of research papers to the 60 or so journals currently published by BioMed Central (with at least 20 more to come next year). It will also give the institution a 15% discount on any of the paid-for products BioMed Central publishes such as Faculty of 1000 and Images.MD. Furthermore, it will allow all the abstracts of relevant articles generated at the institution, irrespective of where they were published, to be archived on a customize page on the BioMed Central website. The abstracts of the articles listed will be included in any searches performed on the BioMed Central web site and be linked to the full text (if available) on the institution's own server or proxy server. Depending on the size of the institution, membership will cost from $1500 to $10,000 per year.
Librarians have reacted positively to the idea of institutional membership. They recognize that paying for publishing through a processing charge is preferable to the increasing spiral of subscription costs. Ken Frazier, the Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, said:
"The UW-Madison libraries will pay the processing charge for our faculty and researchers. We commend you for your important work."
According to Jan Velterop, BioMed Central's publisher, "Institutional Membership will change the process of scientific communication, allowing widespread full-text open access to peer-reviewed scientific literature, by funding the publication process up-front. This will bring about the much desired toll-free dissemination of research results across the world."
Fees for Institutional Membership in 2002 are based on the full time equivalent staff in the relevant departments i.e. (life science / medicine):
Very small institution
| (20-500 Full Time Equivalent staff and (post) graduate students) |
$1500 per annum |
| Small institution (501-1500 FTE) |
$3000 per annum |
| Medium size institution (1501-2500 FTE) |
$4500 per annum |
| Large institution (2501-5000 FTE) |
$6000 per annum |
| Very large institutions (more than 5000 FTE) |
from $7500 per annum |
To read more about Article processing charges and BioMed Central please visit:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/pr-releases.asp
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com) is an independent online publishing house committed to providing immediate free access to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science. In addition to open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes reviews and other subscription-based content.
