On Wed, 12 Nov 2003, Philip Pecorino wrote:
> Here are some questions with which I need some assistance.
>
> What would it mean for a university or other academic institution to support
> or "endorse" Open Access?
It would mean that they either encourage or (better) mandate that all
research output must be made open-access, either by publishing it in an
open-access journal (if one of the 560 existing open-access journals is
suitable for that piece of research
http://www.doaj.org/) or else by
publishing it in one of the remaining 23,440 toll-access journals AND
self-archiving it in the institutional eprint archives (or a suitable
central archive, if one exists).
For this, the institution should create institutional eprint archives (preferably
at the departmental level) and formalize the open-access provision strategy:
Free GNU software for creating OAI-compliant eprint archives:
http://software.eprints.org/
Model for an institutional or departmental open-access provision strategy:
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html
> What would it mean in theory and in practice?
Both in theory and in practise it means the above.
> Is there a model anywhere for such support or endorsement?
See the above model.
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#institution-facilitate-filling
And here is a list of 109 known institutional
eprint.org archives:
http://software.eprints.org/#ep2
Look especially at the bigger ones, like CalTech, Indiana, Australian National,
Lund, Trento, LMU-Muenchen, Melbourne, Queensland, Southampton, Virginia Tech,
Weizmann, CNRS, Nicod, Firenze, as they are the ones with the successful
archive-filling policies.
See also the 239 archives at OAIster (not all institutional)
http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
and the 127 archives at OAI (not all institutional)
http://oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu/Register/BrowseSites.pl
> What would the institution be committing to do? Minimally? Ideally?
Minimally?
- Departmental archives and encouragement to fill them, along
the lines of the Berlin Declaration. (But not likely to produce
results.)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/berlin.htm
Ideally?
- a university-wide open-access provision
policy for all peer-reviewed research output
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html
- a standardized university online CV for research assessment:
http://paracite.eprints.org/cgi-bin/rae_front.cgi
- a university-library-based proxy self-archiving service,
along the lines of the CalTech or the St. Andrews
archives
http://library.caltech.edu/digital/
http://library.caltech.edu/evdv/CODA.ppt
http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/proxy_archive.html
- a parallel university data-archiving initiative
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/data-archiving.htm
- a parallel university book-impact (metadata and bibliography)
initiative
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/bookcite.htm
- a programme of promoting, monitoring, measuring and demonstrating
the maximization of university research impact by maximizing
university research access
http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/search
http://citebase.eprints.org/analysis/correlation.php
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving.htm
> Would encouraging and providing for self archiving be only a start?
If successful, the institutional open access it provides with certainty
would be an end in itself, for the institution itself. The rest would
follow at a global cross-institutional level.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif
http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/harnad.html#B1
> Would it mean encouraging faculty who are editors or editorial board members
> to move the toll journals to an open access mode?
Not a bad idea, but not much an institution (or editors) can do there.
Editorial Boards have defected for lower-toll-access publishers, but asking them
to defect to open-access publishers might be asking for too much at this time.
Besides, it does not do much for the institution's own annual research output.
> Would it mean encouraging faculty to submit to open access journals?
Yes, where suitable ones exist.
> Only to open access journals?
Definitely not! Such an unrealistic recommendation at this time would be
a recipe for having the entire institutional open-access initiative fail,
and lose its credibility. There are 24,000 refereed journals today, and
fewer than 600 of them are open-access.
> What would it mean for its libraries?
Initially, little. Institutional open-access provision will not solve the
serials budget crisis. But it is an investment in an eventual solution -- and
meanwhile provides immediate open access, along with its benefits, in terms of
enhanced visibility and impact.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399we152.htm
> Thanks in advance to any who care to enlighten me.
>
> Philip A. Pecorino, Ph.D.
> Professor, Philosophy
> Queensborough Community College, CUNY
The enlightenment is hereby provided. The rest is in CUNY's hands.
Research funding agencies too can help:
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#research-funders-do
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/harnad/
Stevan Harnad
NOTE: Complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist September 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
Posted discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org
Dual Open-Access Strategy:
BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
journal whenever one exists.
BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0026.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0021.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0024.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif
Received on Fri Nov 14 2003 - 23:29:09 GMT
