This problem has been combatted recently at the prestigious US academic institution, Princeton University. Explained on their news site, they will prevent researchers from giving the copyright of scholarly articles to journal publishers, except in certain cases where a waiver may be granted. The new rule is part of an Open Access policy aimed at broadening the reach of their scholarly work and encouraging publishers to adjust standard contracts that commonly require exclusive copyright as a condition of publication.
We have been advocates for open access publishing since even before our launch in 2008, which you can read about here. We offer an open access resource for the physiotherapy profession and also offer the opportunity to publish your research in an open environment. Why? Well Steve Wheeler does a great explanation in support of this in his recent blog post, the case for open publishing. He concludes by saying “what open access does mean is larger readerships for the published research. That has to be worth something in anyone’s book.” Not to mention the fact that it makes knowledge available to those that otherwise wouldn’t have access!
We have an Open Access Directory in Physiopedia and hope that in the future the list will grow. If you know any others please send them to me and I will add them to the directory.