Harvard University’s faculty of arts and sciences has voted to make research papers and articles available online free of charge.

Robert Darnton, director of Harvard University Library, said the move was essential to halt the “severe damage” to research libraries caused by the “spiralling cost” of academic journals.

He added: “We academics provide the content for scholarly journals. We evaluate articles as referees, we serve on editorial boards, we work as editors ourselves, yet the journals force us to buy back our work, in published form, at outrageous prices.”
Darnton said Harvard’s move would be “a first step toward freeing scholarship from the stranglehold of commercial publishers by making it freely available through our own university repository”.
But Allan Adler, of the Association of American Publishers, said the move could harm the peer review process. “It doesn’t surprise us that all libraries feel their budgets are far less than desirable, but that’s a reality the educational community faces,” he said.
Information industry analyst Outsell disagreed. It warned publishers that they should take the move seriously. “This is more than just a minor pricing spat,” it said. “Harvard’s proposal will act as a benchmark for other academic institutions. Publishers would be well advised to speak to their customers to get to the root of the problem.”