Who pays the Ferryman? About new models for scientific communication

Abstract

Due to a number of problems the traditional scientific journal no longer fulfils a role in the communication among scientists. Several initiatives have been started, using modern information technology, to realise other ways of scientific publishing, which are more in tune with the demands of the academic community. Two Dutch universities (Utrecht and Delft) and two German universities (Oldenburg and Hamburg) have taken the initiative to set up an infrastructure for academic e-publishing in Europe and to establish a network of content providers making use of this infrastructure. This project, called FIGARO, is a European extension of the Dutch Roquade project together with the German GAP project and is financially supported by the European Commission.