AAA's Opposition to Open Source Publishing

A very interesting discussion started (I think) by Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.Net is going on in several of the anthropology-related blogs right now. The discussion begins with the US Senate considering a law requiring the free publication of journal articles that describe research that was paid for by the Federal government--for example, medical research conducted under a grant from the National Institutes for Health. The American Anthropological Association doesn't like it and states so publicly, because that would mean that articles published in the American Anthropologist or any of their journals would be available for free, something they (and plenty other academic and small publishers) object to.

• Anthropology.Net | The American Anthropological Association's ignorant opposition of Open Access
• American Anthropological Association | AAA signals opposition to legislation
• Digging Digitally | Ouch! The AAA and the FRPAA
• Afarensis | An Example of Hypocrisy in Action
• Savage Minds | So, so Misguided

My personal opinion is that this is another battle in the ongoing struggle to figure out how new digital technologies will (and should) impact how we conduct science on this planet. Should be interesting. This has the potential to shake the peer review system to its core, because the major cost in producing academic articles has to do with peer review. The real cost is not the paper and binding, but the labor that goes into gaining reasonable reviews of articles, and after the reviews have been returned, working with the writer to produce a publishable article. The AAA and many other scientific bodies must recoup these costs; so if the result is that science must begin producing research results free for the asking, then the peer review system is what is going to have to change.

What's your opinion?