A Victory for Open Access

Harvard University's decision to ask faculty members to make their papers available in the university's open-access repository and choose open-access journals or those with reasonable subscription costs is a sign that the movement for affordable research is gaining ground.

Harvard spends close to $3.75 million a year to subscribe to journals from large publishing houses. If this well funded university finds it “fiscally unsustainable” to continue paying such heavy subscription fees, the plight of less well-funded universities in developed countries and almost every institution in developing countries can well be imagined. The Ivy League institution's bold decision could turn out to be a harbinger of similar initiatives being adopted by other major universities...