Open access publication & the International Journal of Nursing Studies: All that glitters is not gold

摘要

There has been a long and sometimes heated debate about the merits, or otherwise, of open access publishing of research findings. There are many issues, some of which remain unresolved, but in some aspects at least the matters are becoming clearer. Some funding bodies, perhaps most notably for readers of this journal the National Institute of Health in the United States, have well established policies that require that publically funded research is made accessible, for free, to readers. Funders such as the UK research councils and National Institute for Health Research have similar policies that require open access publishing. Similar requirements will be attached to the European Union's Horizon 20:20 funding programme. Recently the UK's Finch report, prepared by an independent group of academics, libraries, research funders, publishers, and universities stated that the UK, one of the world's leading producers of academic research, should embrace the transition to open access and the Higher Education Funding Council has proposed that all submissions for the periodic assessment of research quality in UK, the Research Excellence Framework (REF), should be based on open access papers (Finch Report, 2012). US legislation may also impose this requirement on all publically funded research.