Open access publishing: don't throw out the baby with the bathwater

 

There is a warning about opportunistic practices in open access publishing targeted at vulnerable scholars at http://the-scientist.com/2012/08/01/predatory-publishing. However, although the article has some relevant warnings it appears to join in with a reactionary response to the important recent arguments that traditional publishers are too dominant and too exclusive, especially with regard to independent scholars.

Without the institutional support paid for by universities' large fees to publishers, independent scholars have been denied online access to these traditional journals by their publishers (let's forget the riciculous fees publishers would charge them of £23 per academic article).