Be prepared for commercial misuse of the term "open access"

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 11:52:44 +0000

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, [identity removed] wrote:

> How strange - if you go to the Nature Immunology website the words "Open
> Access" appear in the left column - not quite sure what it refers to - any
> ideas?
> <http://www.nature.com/ni/>

As correctly predicted by Richard Poynder only a few weeks ago:

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3066.html

    "the term ['Open Access'] is about to go through a very difficult
    period in which it will be used to mean all things to all
    men. That will make the work of those who support BOAI etc. far
    more difficult. Analysts and tipsters will start to use it to
    mean everything but what the originators of the term meant by it,
    companies will start to market products using the term open access
    (intentionally even, as they ramp up the tolls while pretending to
    be something else), and the general noise associated with all this
    activity will doubtless make life far more complex for list members
    (as if their lives were not already beset with misunderstandings
    and confusion!). More importantly, perhaps, the researchers (who,
    we are told, are the people who can make the difference here) will
    be confused, and may turn away from open access thinking it is
    something else."

Stevan
Received on Fri Oct 31 2003 - 11:52:44 GMT

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