A indústria de publicação contra o acesso aberto / The publishing industry against open access journals / La industria de publicación contra el acceso abierto

A publicação em revistas de acesso aberto cresceu expressivamente nos últimos anos. As publicações de acesso fechado, por sua vez, têm custo de acesso cada vez mais elevado, por se beneficiarem de um modelo econômico peculiar: o trabalho relevante e os insumos essenciais são entregues gratuitamente a fornecedores que contam com um mercado cativo, praticamente sem concorrência. O mercado editorial é altamente oligopolizado, característico de indústrias que trabalham com o regime de copyright. Isso contribui para a elevação dos preços de seus produtos. Políticas mandatórias de acesso aberto, como a determinada pela agência National Institutes of Health, constituem-se em ameaça a esse modelo de negócios e são enfrentadas pela indústria em várias frentes, incluindo a passagem de legislação para sabotar tais iniciativas. O objetivo deste comentário foi apresentar alguns aspectos principais desse enfrentamento e sugerir possíveis estratégias de incremento da publicação de acesso aberto em nosso meio.

Open-access journal publishing has significantly grown in recent years. Restricted access publications have, in turn, increasing access costs as they benefit from a unique economic model in which relevant work and essential inputs are provided free of charge to vendors who have a captive market that has almost no competition. An additional issue typical of industries that work under the copyright regime is that the oligopoly market structure of the publishing industry which in turn further contributes to increase their products' prices. Mandatory open-access policies, as determined by the NIH, constitute a threat to this business model and are being challenged by the industry on several fronts, including the passage of legislation to undermine these initiatives. The purpose of this commentary article was to review key aspects of this confrontation and to suggest potential strategies for encouraging open-access publishing in Brazil.

La publicación en revistas de acceso abierto creció expresivamente en los últimos años. Las publicaciones de acceso cerrado, por su parte, tienen costo de acceso cada vez más elevado, por beneficiarse de un modelo económico peculiar: el trabajo relevante y los insumos esenciales son entregados gratuitamente a los proveedores que cuentan con un mercado cautivo, prácticamente sin concurrencia. El mercado editorial es altamente monopolizado, característico de industrias que trabajan con el régimen de copyright. Esto contribuye a la elevación de los precios de sus productos. Políticas obligatorias de acceso abierto, como la determinada por el National Institutes of Health, constituyen amenazas a este modelo de negocios y son enfrentadas por la industria en varios ángulos, incluyendo el paso de legislación para sabotear tales iniciativas. El objetivo de este comentario fue presentar algunos aspectos principales de este enfrentamiento y sugerir posibles estrategias de incremento de la publicación de acceso abierto en nuestro medio.

El financiamiento de las revistas médicas / Publishing models in medical journals

Medical journals are published by scientific societies, universities, publishing agencies and other for-profit or non-profit organizations. The traditional way to cover the expenses in printed journals has been a "subscribers pay" model. The rise of electronic versions in the internet, either together with the printed version or replacing it entirely, plus a progressive adherence to an "open access" for electronic versions, has created financial difficulties. Therefore, the "authors pay" model has been added. Both models can be subsidized by commercial or institutional advertising, but still a main source for financing relies either in subscriptions or in authors' payments. A small source of income that helps to cover publishing costs is a "charge for manuscript reception", currently applied by several journals. Those authors whose work has institutional or external support can use their grants to cover any charges, but the situation is more difficult for those who do not have such support. Since 1872, Sociedad Médica de Santiago-Chilean Society of Internal Medicine, owner and publisher of Revista Médica de Chile, has employed the "subscribers pay" model, subsidized by commercial advertising and temporary sponsors (Chilean government and others). The printed journal is reproduced in an open access electronic version, in www.scielo.cl. The increasing cost of both publications systems demands a time for reflection.