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Scientific Publications: Free for all?

: It certainly can be expensive to publish a paper. However, I do not want a system that transfers that expense wholesale. That is why we all agree that there should be diverse publishing systems and models. We should not rush headlong into a situation in which author pays is the mainstream norm. The new model will simply transfer costs because while universities and their libraries must currently pay for access to journals, in future they will have to pay for their authors to get published. That means that the cost will fall most heavily on leading universities, many of which are in the UK. Cornell university in New York has already stated that it would see its expenditure rise significantly under an ““author pays”” model. The ““author pays”” model is not a panacea or a scientific nirvana. It brings with it some very significant problems. In the UK, there is a particular need to address this issue. In his closing remarks, the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough said that the choice was between protecting the interests of the UK scientific industry or the interests of the research community as a whole. That is a false dichotomy. Potentially, those interests are one and the same. The Government's role is to protect the UK scientific community, not to intervene by, in effect, nationalising research publishing when it is so successful, employs so many people and is such a world-beater. The real problem is the boom in research. Britain, the developed world and, indeed, the developing world are all putting money into research, which is hugely welcome. However, with the increase in funding for research comes more product. That means fatter journals, more peer review, and more available information. It is estimated that the increase in research and development funding will cause an increase of about 1 million papers a year over the next decade, almost doubling the output. The problem is that library budgets have not kept up with that explosion in information growth. In searching for a solution to the problem, I ask the Minister to look at the research and development budget in the round, and to think of libraries as part of that budget. That would be a way of saying that research and development is not simply about the creation of knowledge; it is also about its dissemination. If we do not have mechanisms in place to disseminate knowledge, we will all be the poorer. Britain is recognised as an international centre for journal publishing. I have gone so far as to say that we are a world leader. I believe that, and much of that leadership is based in Oxfordshire. Many of the people who work in that industry live in my constituency. It would be wrong to undermine the industry by a headlong rush into untried and untested models. Instead, we should allow the publishing industry to adapt and to change in the face of that challenge. The Wellcome Trust initiative is an enormous opportunity, not a threat. The trust is, in effect, a private institution that is perfectly free to set up its own distribution model based on its own charitable principles. I applaud it, not least because it is also a constituent of mine, as it funds the vast majority of the costs of the Diamond synchrotron project at Hull university. That is not the result of a Government solution imposed from above, but a private organisation taking a decision based on its own funding. As I said, the publishing industry is moving to increase access to its output, and advances are already being made that suggest that an open access system will evolve within the current scenario. Surely it makes sense to allow the system to develop in a viable and sustainable way.