Re: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research Output

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 05:23:38 +0000

Dear Prof. Rajashekar,

Congratulations on the IISc Eprints Archive!
http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/

Here are some replies to your queries:

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Dr. T.B. Rajashekar wrote:

> We have also interfaced our archive with Greenstone
> digital library software to support full text searching (not supported by
> current version of eprint.org software).

It is supported in the next eprints.org release. Please contact Chris
Gutteridge for the date. (But note that full-text searching is far more
useful as a cross-archive service than a within-archive one.)

> However, self-archiving so far has been extremely sporadic - till today we
> have only about 70 papers submitted to the archive. I should admit that on
> our part, we have not promoted the archive vigorously (except for the
> initial announcement and a poster we brought out sometime back).
> We intend to go on a promotional drive and we are quite confident of
> convincing significant number of our researchers (if not all!) the benefits
> of self-archiving, through promotional seminars and individual contacts.

So far that is on a par with most other archives at institutions
that have not yet formulated an open-access provision policy. But
the further measures you describe sound promising. As a
potential model for your institutional policy, I recommend:
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html

See also:
    http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/proxy_archive.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0022.gif

> 3. Track 'clicks' and downloads of papers from the archive and generate
> statistics in support of improved access and visibility.
>
> I believe eprints.org software does not support this feature. We have to
> find a way to do this - we consider this important.

Please contact Chris Gutteridge at eprints.org about this, but
also Tim Brody designer of citebase, an opcit/eprints sister
project, which does all of that as a cross-archive service:
    http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/search

> I welcome comments and suggestions about these plans and also other means of
> improving deposition and visibility of the archive content.

I suggest you also ask the eprints-underground and OAI-general lists for suggestions.

> There is another interesting issue. Some researchers in our institute (e.g.
> physics and chemistry) ask the question - why the need for archiving in
> institutional archive if they are already depositing in domain archives like
> arxiv? How do we address this?

Please see the Amsci threads:

    "Central vs. Distributed Archives"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0293.html

    "Central versus institutional self-archiving"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3205.html

In a nutshell, all OAI archives are equivalent, but institutional self-archiving
policy is more easily and systematically monitored if all research output is
self-archived in the institutional archive.

    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0044.gif

> I wish you and your colleagues a Very Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to you too! It struck here just as I was replying to your message!

Stevan Harnad

NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist Open Access Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
    Post discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org

Unified Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
            http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
            http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
    http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
Received on Thu Jan 01 2004 - 05:23:38 GMT

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