Open access. Why would an intermediary be involved?

Open access presents some interesting challenges for both libraries and publishers. While the publisher side has been very well documented over the past few years, the impact open access will have on the rest of the content supply chain has been less well explored, particularly in terms of the potential role of an intermediary like Swets.

There are important and functional processes that a third-party service provider might help with related to the growth of open access publishing. In the case of increasing levels of gold open access papers, there will be an equal growth in the processing of author fees (article processing charges, or APCs), which will require high levels of administration and often brand new workflows for both libraries, publishers and funding organizations. In Swets’ case, our global support infrastructure could provide real value here by taking the time-consuming tasks out of the hands of the library so they can focus on the delivery of content and helping their authors and readers directly, providing information, training and support for publishing and discovering open access content.More...........

California's Open Access Bill Encounters A Hurdle, But Gathers Support

California's landmark open access bill, the California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (AB 609), has stalled in the State Senate. But take heart—it is far from dead.

Due to some procedural glitches, the Senate Governmental Organization (G.O.) Committee hasn't been able to officially sign off on the bill. At last week's hearing, the bill barely missed out on a quorum, getting five yes votes and zero no votes. (The other members abstained.) However, the bill was granted reconsideration by the Chair of the G.O. That means the Committee will pick up the bill in January 2014, exactly where it left off.

That also means our work is far form over. This kind of delay can often be the vehicle for a slow, quiet death. But we, and the bill many other supporters, won't let that happen to open access.

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