"Open Access" Options from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc Publisher

[mixin]

We're often displeased when researchers don't give open access. I was surprised to see this publisher charges authors if they want their articles to be open to the public.

Somehow it doesn't seem right that NIH funded research is not available as soon as it becomes final; a withholding period of 1 year seems excessive for publically-funded research publications.

IMO, NIH should make open access a condition to receiving funding.

What started this discussion is this pay to view article: Bacterial Pneumonias during an Influenza Pandemic: How Will We Allocate Antibiotics? This is important and shouldn't be withheld for a year.

Does anyone know what the benefits are for publishing with this type of company versus PLoS or depositing directly to PubMed Central?

Liebert “Open Option”: Authors who would like their articles posted free online with immediate unrestricted open access may pay a $3,000 fee. Authors publishing their second or subsequent articles using Open Option will receive a 50% discount ($1,500).

Authors from an organization that has an Institutional Membership* also pay the reduced Open Option fee of $1,500 for all articles, including their first Open Option article. *An Institutional Membership means that your organization has an e-license for the entire Liebert Online journal collection, either directly with us or as the member of a participating consortium.

NIH Public Access Policy: In order to assist our authors who have NIH funding to comply with this policy, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers will deposit the final accepted article (after copy-editing and proofreading) to PubMed Central (PMC) on behalf of the authors. Authors need not take any action. The manuscript’s public access posting on PMC will occur 12 months after final publication. This service is provided free of charge. Please note that authors may not deposit manuscripts directly to PMC or other sites without permission from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

NIH-funded authors who would like their articles to be posted on PMC immediately without this embargo period will have the option to make their articles available free online via Liebert Open Option for a one-time fee of $3,000 described above. This fee also makes the article free in perpetuity on the Liebert Online site.

http://www.liebertpub.com/Mcontent/files/OpenOptionForAuthors.pdf