OA interview: Poynder on Dove Medical Press

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Richard Poynder continues his interviews of individuals involved 
in OA publishing, recently posting an interview of the owner of 
Dove Medical Press.  The interesting thread that Poynder explores 
is the lack of transparency (and thus accountability) of some of 
these start-up companies.  While certainly not limited to OA 
publishers, the open access movement is very focused on 
transparency and public accountability as central framing issues.

One may argue that access to public funds requires both access to 
the output of the research AND access to how the money was spent. 
You can't have it both ways.

"To add to the uncertainty, the ownership of some of these 
companies can be a little obscure. When earlier this year I 
raised the issue of ownership with the editorial director of 
Bentham Science Publishers, Matthew Honan, he would say only that 
the company was owned by "a number of individuals, and the legal 
part of the business is based in the United Arab Emirates". Asked 
to specify who the individuals were Honan insisted, "I can't 
disclose their names to you."

Poynder concludes his post with:

"...OA publishers might be better regarded by the research 
community if they were more transparent, both about their 
business practices and their ownership. After all, it is 
primarily public money that researchers will be using to pay to 
have their scholarly papers published in OA journals. Is it not 
reasonable therefore for taxpayers to expect to know exactly what 
is being provided for that money, and who will benefit from any 
profits that are made as a result?"

see:
The Open Access Interviews: Dove Medical Press
http://poynder.blogspot.com/

--Phil Davis