EPSRC Connect It seems that there is hope. A short while ago I was a member of an EPSRC ICT Panel, this was my second research panel, the previous being around two years ago. At that time we tried to rank around 35 good proposals and of those only a very small amount (if my memory serves me correctly) just 5 were funded. At this most recent panel, I’m very pleased to say that of the 24 proposals being ranked around 10 were funded.

The I think you will agree there are many problems with both the open access and closed access models of academic publishing. The closed access model forces the reader to pay (often within the region of US$25) per article, while the open model forces the author to pay (often within the region of US$1500) per article. The ACM seems to have found an excellent middle ground with their new Author-Izer service.

I was recently offered the ability to publish one of my journal papers in a reputable journal but ‘Open Access’. The facility for me to do this was at the bargain price of $3250. I also considered using PLoS ONE via the public library of science, but at approximately $1000 per article again the price seemed to preclude publication. I understand the rational of open publication but it seems to me at these prices the ‘open’ aspects are not really being transferred to the author, only the reader, and therefore the suggestion of increased citation.