PRESS RELEASE
OASPA Welcomes British Medical Journal and Oxford University Press
1 December 2009,The Hague: The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, OASPA, is pleased to announce two new members, The British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Oxford University Press (OUP).
OASPA President, Caroline Sutton is pleased to welcome the new members stating: “OASPA’s mission is to support and represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journals publishers globally in all scientific, technical, medical and scholarly disciplines. These publishers represent important perspectives within Open Access publishing that will enrich our exchange of information and support OASPA’s work to set industry standards and advance business and publishing models, among other things. As a leading publication in the medical field, British Medical Journal (BMJ) was early to adopt free online access to original research, while Oxford University Press (OUP)’s openness in sharing details of the economics of its full and hybrid open access journals has played a valuable role in allowing the economic viability of open access models to be assessed.”
BMJ Editor-in-Chief Fiona Godlee views BMJ’s membership as a reflection of the journal’s long-time commitment to Open Access: “The BMJ has been an active supporter of open access from the outset. The journal provides immediate worldwide free access to the full text of its peer reviewed research articles and has done so since 1998. The BMJ was one of the first journals to sign up with PubMed Central and continues to deposit research articles with PubMed Central from the day of publication. The BMJ was also a pioneer in letting authors retain the copyright to their work. We are delighted to be joining OASPA.”
“Oxford Journals is committed to fair and sustainable pricing models and we see open access as one means of achieving this,” explained Martin Richardson, Managing Director of OUP’s Journals Division. “We support the OASPA’s desire to share experiences and best practice for open access publishing, so we’re pleased to be able to join its community.”
The BMJ and OUP bring OASPA’s membership to 29 Full Members and 24 Associate Members, with additional membership applications pending. The organization looks to expand membership further during 2010.
For more information, contact: info@oaspa.org; or ring Caroline Sutton at +47 90 69 05 06. More information about the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association OASPA can be found at www.oaspa.org.