print, search, or link to the full texts
of these articles, or use them for any
other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other
than those inseparable from gaining
access to the Internet itself.” Vardi, to
his credit, is a signer of the Initiative.
I urge him to reconsider its implications for ACM journals.
His more general point was that the
status quo should be good enough,
since the price of ACM’s publications
is, in his words, “very reasonable.” He
invited readers to consult their librarians for confirmation. My librarian,
Kevin Engel of the Kistle Science Library at Grinnell College, says that the
prices charged for ACM publications
are roughly comparable to those of other professional organizations, perhaps
not quite as outrageous as those of, say,
the American Chemical Society, though
somewhat more outrageous than the
American Psychological Association.
However, Engel also says that ACM
stands out as the only professional organization that views the print version
of its publications as its main profit
center and hence refuses to offer an
online-only subscription bundle, putting many researchers and students at
a disadvantage.
As a signer of the Budapest Initiative, I strongly prefer open access to
ACM journals for everyone. Even if
ACM is unwilling to take such a step,
we could move incrementally in this
general direction by unbundling its
subscriptions and making the online
editions of its publications separately
available for purchase.
John David Stone, Grinnell, IA
I’d like to thank Moshe Y. Vardi for
his thoughtful analysis of open access
(July 2009) and offer a few additional
points. (My employer, O’Reilly Media, provides technical information
in the form of books and other media
in both open and closed forms; this
comment does not necessarily represent the views of O’Reilly Media.)
The most valuable benefit of providing open access to publications is it
allows us to be “part of the conversation” in vibrant and productive online
forums. ACM publications are widely
cited; I just checked my own articles
and blogs over the past few years and
found I referred to Communications
16 times. Were the articles easier to
search, read, and link to on the Web,
they would play an even more important role in online discussions, as they
do in professional publications. Reader comments would further enhance
the value of the content.
However, this would not solve
Vardi’s concern over the cost of editing and publishing. He wrote that the
prices charged for ACM journals not
only cover the cost of their publication
(an impressive achievement in itself)
but yield a surplus that supports other
ACM activities (truly commendable).
I don’t blame ACM for sticking to its
partly closed model.
An alternative, if ACM were to go
open, would be to subsidize publications through increased dues or other
charges. I’m sure it would alter the calculation for ACM members (
particularly students) when deciding whether
to join for the first time or renew their
memberships each year and might
require new forms of fundraising. It’s
certainly common for organizations to
ask members and donors to pay for development of information otherwise
offered free to the world. If these publications represent the core offering to
ACM members, the strategy is risky.
andy oram, Cambridge, MA
I’d like to propose yet another business
model for the ACM Digital Library that
blends both sides of the open vs. closed
access debate, per Moshe Y. Vardi (July
2009). I agree that high-quality science
publishing bears unavoidable costs
even for electronic-only journals readers should pay for. But scientific papers should be shared free of charge
with the largest audience possible.
As a teacher, I must often explain basic algorithms and data structures by
citing original pioneering papers. Because these “old” papers are still under copyright, students cannot freely
and securely access them in digital
libraries. They get only a limited view
of their full technical coverage, getting
the main aspects of highly cited papers while missing the full scope of the
techniques being covered.
ACM should consider making available (for free) a set of highly rated CS
papers from the Digital Library. This
would offer students the historical papers that forged the science in the first
place, letting them in turn explore the
functionalities of the Digital Library
and inspiring their future interest in
being subscribers. One way to do so
might be to offer a free Education Library as a subset of the Digital Library.
frank Nielsen, Paris, France
acm Responds:
Concerning Stone’s comments, please
know that ACM does offer online-only
subscriptions; a library need not buy a
print package in order to subscribe to the
Digital Library. In fact, most ACM library
customers today belong to consortia for
which the basic package is online-only
access to the Digital Library with one free
print package included; additional print
packages are available to every member of
a consortium, though few opt to buy them.
Meanwhile, print long ago ceased to be
ACM’s “main profit center”; revenue from
digital offerings far exceeds revenue from
print. In any case, it is increasingly difficult
to make a financial case for continuing
print. For a number of publications, the
print side must be subsidized, mainly to
satisfy a dwindling set of library customers.
Finally, ACM does offer electronic-only
subscriptions to individual titles. Members
and non-members alike are able to buy
print-only subscriptions, electronic-only subscriptions, or print+electronic
subscriptions to individual titles.
Bernard Rous, ACM electronic Publishing Program director, New York
Communications welcomes your opinion. To submit a
Letter to the Editor, please limit your comments to 500
words or less and send to letters@cacm.acm.org.
© 2009 ACM 0001-0782/09/0900 $10.00
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