評論
打印
Text 2
閱讀2
It used to be so straightforward.
原本一切都很簡單。
A team of researchers working together in the laboratory would submit the results of their research to a journal.
一組研究員在實驗室里共同完成一個試驗，把結果提交給某刊物，
A journal editor would then remove the authors' names and affiliations from the paper and send it to their peers for review.
刊物的編輯把作者姓名及相關信息隱去，把報告交給這些研究者的同行去審閱。
Depending on the comments received, the editor would accept the paper for publication or decline it.
根據評論意見，編輯將決定是否發表。
Copyright rested with the journal publisher, and researchers seeking knowledge of the results would have to subscribe to the journal.
因此，版權留在刊物出版社手上，辛苦探求知識的研究者反倒要花錢訂閱刊物。
No longer. The Internet - and pressure from funding agencies, who are questioning why commercial publishers are making money from government-funded research by restricting access to it - is making access to scientific results a reality.
現在不再是這樣了。提供資金的機構施加壓力，質疑為什么商業刊物可以通過限制刊載的手段從政府投資的研究項目中牟利，互聯網使閱讀科研結果成為現實。
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just issued a report describing the far-reaching consequences of this.
經濟合作及發展組織（OECD）近日發布一項調查，揭示了該現象所造成的深遠影響。
The report, by John Houghton of Victoria University in Australia and Graham Vickery of the OECD, makes heavy reading for publishers who have, so far, made handsome profits.
澳大利亞維多利亞大學的 John Houghton 和經合組織的 Graham Vickery聯合完成這一報告，內容使目前為止收入豐厚的出版商們感到汗顏。
But it goes further than that.
但是這項報告的意義遠遠不止于此，
It signals a change in what has, until now, been a key element of scientific endeavor.
它標志著科學嘗試的一項關鍵性因素即將發生改變。
The value of knowledge and the return on the public investment in research depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access.
在某種程度上來說，知識的價值和公共投資能否取得較高回報，取決于是否能夠得到廣泛的流通、人們是否能夠比較容易地獲取這些研究成果。
It is big business. In America, the core scientific publishing market is estimated at between $7 billion and $11 billion.
這是一項很大的產業。在美國，核心科研出版市場產值每年在 70億美元到110億美元左右。
The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says that there are more than 2, 000 publishers worldwide specializing in these subjects.
國際科學、技術和醫學出版社集團宣稱全世界專業出版本類期刊的出版商有2000多家。
They publish more than 1. 2 million articles each year in some 16, 000 journals.
他們每年在 16000 種刊物上發表 120萬篇以上文章。
This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% of scholarly journals are now online.
這個數字現在有所變化。根據 OECD 報告，目前有 75%的專業期刊在互聯網上有在線閱讀。
Entirely new business models are emerging; three main ones were identified by the report's authors.
全新的商務模式正在形成，報告作者總結出其中三種。
There is the so-called big deal, where institutional subscribers pay for access to a collection of online journal titles through site-licensing agreements.
第一種是所謂的大訂單模式，即機構團體訂閱者通過簽訂網站協議付錢購買閱讀一批刊物文章題目的權限。
There is open-access publishing, typically supported by asking the author (or his employer) to pay for the paper to be published.
第二種為開放式出版模式，這種方式的典型特點是要求作者（或其雇主）付費發表文章。
Finally, there are open-access archives, where organizations such as universities or international laboratories support institutional repositories.
最后一種為開放式檔案模式，即一些組織，比如大學或者國際實驗室建立和維護的一些機構數據庫。
Other models exist that are hybrids of these three, such as delayed open-access, where journals allow only subscribers to read a paper for the first six months, before making it freely available to everyone who wishes to see it.
其他的模式都是對這三種的不同組合，比如延期開放式是指某一些期刊在發表文章的前六個月只允許付費閱覽，此后轉為免費閱讀。
All this could change the traditional form of the peer-review process, at least for the publication of papers.
至少對論文的發表來說，這些都將顛覆傳統的同行審閱模式。
