Re: Repositories: Institutional or Central ? emergent properties and the compulsory open society

From: Bernard Rentier <brentier_at_ULG.AC.BE>
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 18:21:37 +0100

On 07-Feb.-09 at 14:18, Klaus Graf wrote :

> 2009/2/6 Bernard Rentier <brentier_at_ulg.ac.be>:
> > 1. Universities may legitimately own a repository of all the
> > publications by
> > their employees, no matter what their statutes can be, they may
> > also impose
> > a mandate and simply enforce it by making it conditional for futher
> > in-house
> > funding, advancement, promotions, etc.
>
> This isn't true for Germany, see http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=mandat
> Legal mainstream in Germany says that the freedom of research forbidds
> mandating on university level.
>
> Klaus Graf

It is most unfortunate for German researchers and for German
Institutions (Universities & Research Centres). As opposed to
researchers in other countries, they are missing a superb opportunity
for efficient worldwide dissemination of the knowledge they generate...

I have a hard time understanding what this "legal mainstream" means
and what is the rationale for it... It sounds more like a moral
mainstream to me. Indeed, is it unclear whether it is a law, a decree,
a widely followed institutional rule, or a dominant frame of mind ?

 Why should people be afraid of institutional mandates ?
Just because they are orders ? commandments ? Certainly not because
they deprive researchers from their freedom to publish wherever they
want.

Freedom to decide where to publish is perfectly safe, even with IR
mandates. IRs are not scientific journals and they have no intention,
even in the long run, to replace them (OA journals are a different
matter and they do not change a single bit the role and objectives of
IRs).
Depositing in an IR has nothing to do with submitting a paper to peers
for review and to editors for acceptance in a journal.

Basically, depositing a paper in the local IR is exactly like
depositing a reprint of the paper ay the local library. Sending it to
a potential reader upon request by a simple keystroke (if the paper
cannot be made freely available yet legally) is just like sending a
reprint by mail (but easier and cheaper). We have done this for many
decades without complaints from anyone. Why would it turn into a legal
worry now ?

No researcher would complain (and consider it an infringement upon his/
her academic freedom to publish) if we mandated them to deposit
reprints at the local library. It would be just another duty like they
have many others. It would not be terribly useful, needless to say,
but it would not cause an uproar. Qualitatively, nothing changes.
Quantitatively, readership explodes.

Best regards,

Bernard Rentier
Received on Sun Feb 08 2009 - 18:38:59 GMT

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