Re: Evolving Publisher Copyright Policies On Self-Archiving

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 16:07:25 +0000

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004, David Goodman wrote:

> ...I suggest that [the preprint-plus-corrections] method

    http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#copyright1

> is one of a number of suggestions made during the earlier years
> of OA advocacy that are no longer necessary. I think we would generally
> agree that this method is not a particularly good one, for many reasons as
> well as its undetermined legality, and I think we would generally agree
> that a scholar in any subject now has access to superior methods. We
> have made progress, and perhaps the now-obsolete material can be removed
> from current statements of the OA position. It will remain well archived,
> for those who wish to study the development of OA. Some disagreements
> continue to need resolution, but some eventually become unnecessary.

I would like to make a counter-suggestion. If OA has made progress during
the past decade, it is not because of empty exercises, but because of
concrete practical contributions, such as:

   creating and promoting the OAI protocol
     http://www.openarchives.org/
   creating and promoting the self-archiving software
     http://www.eprints.org/
   creating and promoting OA journals
     http://www.doaj.org/
   creating and promoting OA citation-indices
     http://citebase.eprints.org/
   funding and promoting OA projects
     http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
   gathering and publicising evidence of OA progress
     http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html
   gathering and publicising journal self-archiving policies
     http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ls/disresearch/romeo/
   measuring and publicizing evidence of the OA impact advantage
     http://citebase.eprints.org/isi_study/
   drafting and promoting OA legislation and policy
     http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39903.htm

May I suggest that if we wish to do something substantive to accelerate OA
growth, we try to do something along the above useful and constructive
lines? And if we merely wish to keep chatting abstractly about OA
matters, we do it on another list? Because this Forum, the first of
what is now a half dozen lists devoted to OA matters, is -- as has been
announced several times -- now reserved for the discussion of concrete,
practical means of accelerating OA growth.

Stevan Harnad
Received on Fri Dec 10 2004 - 16:07:25 GMT

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