This would seem to be a step in the right direction.

http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120502-0000139/Wikipedia-co-founder-to-help-UK-government-with-free-access-research-database

http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/05/03/rundle-the-other-media-story-that-dwarfs-the-news-fiasco/

"The UK government announced that it would be making all research papers generated within its public universities available openly, online, for free."

It's good that a stand has finally been taken against this rort. It has always staggered me that work accomplished with taxpayers' money is then hijacked by private enterprise for their own monetary gain. Pure extortion.

It seems the academic journals face being in the same situation as record companies and film distributors have in recent years… The all pervasiveness of the interwebinetiverse making previous models of publication and distribution obsolete.

Just as the sciences adapt their models of reality to new situations and evidence so the scientific journals will have to adapt themselves or face oblivion. If only because Google Scholar (check it out if you haven't already) is well positioned to pounce on such an opportunity.

Questions of standards and rigour, as well, as peer review, will sort themselves out – though the process won't always be edifying, it can be guaranteed to be entertaining…

Witness the way commentators on OLO 'sort out' article authors who richly deserve it.

What Open-access is lacking is the proper peer-review system which has long well-established in academic world. Most 'Chinese' open access journals are the business for some unqualified academics to showcase their work.

Also, I found a study shows the growth of OA publishing during the period 1993–2009. During the last year an estimated 191 000 articles were published in 4769 journals. Since the year 2000, the average annual growth rate has been 18% for the number of journals and 30% for the number of articles. In 2009 the share of articles in OA journals, of all peer reviewed journal articles, reached 7,7%. Overall, the results document a rapid growth in OA journal publishing over the last fifteen years. It's growing!