The title of this post, “Participation is pretty much a ‘no brainer'” comes from Ann Okerson’s presentation on SCOAP3, which is just a brilliant approach to supporting scholarly communications and academic publishing in a sustainable manner for worldwide Open Access.
From the SCOAP3 website, SCOAP3 is:
A consortium facilitates Open Access publishing in High Energy Physics by re-directing subscription money. This answers the request of the High Energy Physics community.
Today: (funding bodies through) libraries buy journal subscriptions to support the peer-review service and allow their patrons to read articles.
Tomorrow: funding bodies and libraries contribute to the consortium, which pays centrally for the peer-review service. Articles are free to read for everyone.
It’s always lovely to hear about SCOAP3 because it’s such an important and excellent example of how scholarly communities, publishers, and libraries can all work together for their own and worldwide benefit.