Researchers should be highly motivated to make their refereed articles
freely accessible on the Web. Thus far, however, their interest and
actions relative to such access have been minimal. For example, few life
scientists have taken the offered opportunity to post their refereed
articles on central e-print servers.
I was therefore pleased to find, at three talks given to groups of 25 or
more life-science researchers during the past year, that most such
researchers have finally concluded that the Web will revolutionize their
access to journal articles. Also they are beginning to realize that free
Web access is affordable and much more desirable than the tollgate access
that most publishers are currently planning and implementing.
To find out what those attending my two most recent talks were willing to
do to promote free access, I asked in a questionnaire if they would--
(1) petition the societies to which they belong to take fiscally
responsible steps toward free access?
[98% would]
(2) submit an alternative copyright release with their next paper?
[87% would]
(3) post their old articles on their home pages without permissions from
copyright-holding publishers?
[80% would]
The complete questionnaire and results are posted at
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/FWApage.htm#Quest
At my gateway site to e-publication of journals
(
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/tjwonwww.htm)
are also posted--
** The future of scientific journals: free Web access?
[PowerPoint presentation used for seminars at Florida State University and
University of Florida, Oct. 1999]
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/FWApage.htm
** Three things researchers can do to promote free access.
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/3things.htm
** History and results of efforts to get the Entomological Society of
America and Florida Entomological Society to embrace fiscally responsible
free access to articles in their journals.
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/ESAepub.htm
and
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/tjwonwww.htm#epub
** Sample petitions to societies.
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/petit.htm
and
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/resolut2.html
** Links to literature on Web access to journal articles.
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/fewww/epubart.htm
=========================================================================
Thomas J. Walker
Department of Entomology & Nematology
University of Florida, PO Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620
E-mail: tjw_at_gnv.ifas.ufl.edu FAX: (352)392-0190
Web:
http://csssrvr.entnem.ufl.edu/~walker/tjwbib/walker.htm
=========================================================================
Received on Wed Feb 10 1999 - 19:17:43 GMT