From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 11:58:48 +0100

Learned societies lose out. They represent scholars. The money from
corporate sales is part of the money they receive directly or indirectly.

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: "Friend, Fred" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:25:10 +0000

Dear Anthony,

Who is losing out by this "complete removal of a source of income"?
The taxpayer is not losing out because the pharma companies pay taxes, taxes
which pay for the toll-free access to publicly-funded research outputs. The
pharma companies are not freeloading upon the economies of the countries in
which they are based (or if they are it is not because of the availability
of free journals). The benefit that the pharma companies receive from open
access contribute to economic growth in the same way as the benefit that any
commercial company receives from OA contributes to economic growth.
Publicly-funded research does not lose out because research institutions
would not have received any income from the money paid for journals by the
pharma companies. So are the publishers of the journals previously purchased
by the pharma companies the only stakeholders losing out? If so, forgive me
if I do not shed any tears over their loss.

Fred Friend
Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL