2008年Text 2
It used to be so straightforward. A team of researchers working together in the laboratory would submit the results of their research to a journal. A journal editor would then remove the authors' names and affiliations from the paper and send it to their peers for review. Depending on the comments received, the editor would accept the paper for publication or decline it. Copyright rested with the journal publisher, and researchers seeking knowledge of the results would have to subscribe to the journal.
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. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just issued a report describing the far-reaching consequences of this. 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. But it goes further than that. It signals a change in what has, until now, been a key element of scientific endeavor.
The value of knowledge and the return on the public investment in research depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access. It is big business. In America, the core scientific publishing market is estimated at between $7 billion and $11 billion. The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says that there are more than 2,000 publishers worldwide specializing in these subjects. They publish more than 1.2 million articles each year in some 16,000 journals.
This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% of scholarly journals are now online. Entirely new business models are emerging; three main institutional subscribers pay for access to a collection of online journal titles through site-licensing agreements. There is open-access publishing, typically supported by asking the author (or his employer) to pay for the paper to be published. Finally, there are open-access archives, where organizations such as universities or international laboratories support institutional repositories. 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. All this could change the traditional form of the peer-review process, at least for the publication of papers.
30. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
[A] The Internet is posing a threat to publishers.
[B] A new mode of publication is emerging.
[C] Authors welcome the new channel for publication.
[D] Publication is rendered easier by online service.
[答案] B
[解題思路]
從文章結(jié)構(gòu)看，本文的中心是關(guān)于一種新的出版方式，以及它給科學(xué)雜志出版帶來(lái)的影響--可以更方便的獲得科學(xué)結(jié)果。文章第一段重點(diǎn)地介紹了傳統(tǒng)的出版方式，這種方式使科學(xué)工作者只有訂購(gòu)了該科學(xué)雜志才可以獲得科學(xué)的結(jié)果。文章第二段介紹一種新型的出版方式--網(wǎng)絡(luò)出版，使得科技人員容易獲得科學(xué)結(jié)果。第三段談到科學(xué)的價(jià)值和投資回報(bào)取決于雜志的發(fā)行量和易獲得性。第四段具體介紹了這一新趨勢(shì)的主要出版模式。因此最佳答案自然為B選項(xiàng)。A和D選項(xiàng)只是文章中的小細(xì)節(jié)，而C選項(xiàng)的表述在文章中沒(méi)有提及。
[題目譯文]
下面的哪一項(xiàng)能最好地概括這篇文章的內(nèi)容
[A] 網(wǎng)絡(luò)給出版商帶來(lái)了威脅
[B] 一種新的出版方式正在出現(xiàn)
[C] 作者們歡迎新的出版途徑
[D]網(wǎng)上服務(wù)讓出版變得更加方便
