Denmark makes national Open Access commitment

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Denmark makes national Open Access commitment 13 Nov 2004

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=16305

Denmark has made a nationwide commitment to Open Access for the

biomedical research it funds. All universities, hospitals and other

research institutes in Denmark became BioMed Central members in October.

The membership agreement covers the cost of publication, in BioMed

Central's 120 Open Access journals, for all publicly funded researchers

and teachers in Denmark.

BioMed Central agreed the membership with the Denmark's Electronic

Research Library (DEF) - a co-operation between the Danish research

libraries under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development and

the Ministry of Culture.

Bo Öhrström, DEF co-ordinator and deputy director of the Danish National

Library Authority, explained why DEF took the decision, " Open Access

publications help disseminate research but also represent a completely

new development in journal publishing. A national agreement like this

benefits all scholars and research institutions in Denmark, including

smaller research projects in growth areas. "

Natasha Robshaw, Head of Marketing and Sales at BioMed Central, said:

" We applaud Denmark's Electronic Research Library for making this

important step, and are really excited that three of the four

Scandinavian countries have now become BioMed Central members. This will

have a huge effect on awareness of Open Access, and its many benefits,

in this part of Europe. We hope that Sweden will join its neighbors

making a national commitment to Open Access. Sweden has been an early

proponent of Open Access- Lund University was the first institution to

become a BioMed Central member. "

Scandinavia is now leading the world in its commitment to Open Access.

Denmark's decision follows an announcement last month that Norway has

agreed a national membership with BioMed Central. In May 2004, Finland

became the first entire country to sign up for BioMed Central membership

for all of its 25000 publicly funded researchers.

About BioMed Central

BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com) is an independent online

publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge

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.

BioMed Central's business model is based on charging authors to publish,

and then making the content free to readers. Under membership

agreements, authors from member institutions will not be asked to pay an

article processing charge when publishing research. The charge is

instead covered by the institution's BioMed Central membership. This

applies to all of BioMed Central's 120 peer-reviewed journals. Upon

acceptance, the article becomes available online without charge to

readers worldwide.

BioMed Central's Institutional Membership Program was launched in

January 2002 and now has over 450 members, including some of the world's

most prestigious academic institutions.