[Wikimedia-l] Harvard University: Drop paywalled journals, publish open access

[David Gerard]

Tangential, but highly relevant to the goal of free content:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices

"Exasperated by rising subscription costs charged by academic
publishers, Harvard University has encouraged its faculty members to
make their research freely available through open access journals and
to resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls."

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448

"The Library has never received anything close to full reimbursement
for these expenditures from overhead collected by the University on
grant and research funds. The Faculty Advisory Council to the Library,
representing university faculty in all schools and in consultation
with the Harvard Library leadership,  reached this conclusion: major
periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published
by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these
subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing
so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas,
already compromised."


- d.