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Scientific Publications: Free for all?

: It means Research Councils UK research, not specifically departmental research. Furthermore, one third of all journals are published by not-for-profit organisations, which as hon. Members know, plough all their profits back into research, effectively subsidising Government research. Again, CABI is a good example of that. The organisation publishes 16 journals at a cost of £1.5 million a year and ploughs all profits back into further research. My assertion is that there is no access crisis and no profiteering. We get value for money and benefit from the subsidies that the publishing industry provides to the developing world and to research. We have a thriving, world-beating, innovative and diverse industry. It is not complacent or tilted against public libraries. It is not waiting to see how things develop, but is pushing forward. The alternative model is author pays and institutional repositories. It is untried and untested, although I acknowledge that as the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough said it is fast gaining ground. I applaud that. I certainly would applaud models that entailed greater open access. I should like to see how they would develop and I should like them to develop from the ground up, not as part of a top-down, Government-sponsored plan. The current model, the peer review model, has been around for 340 years. It is well established and well developed and we do not want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.