On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Thomas J. Walker wrote:
> Would it be correct to state in the announcement that ESA is the first
> scientific society to offer its authors immediate free Web access for a
> (modest) price? If not, what scientific societies preceded ESA?
It might be correct to state that ESA was the first to offer
authors free Web access for a price, but others have offered authors
free Web access for free (e.g., the American Physical Society), by
simply allowing them to self-archive.
<
ftp://aps.org/pub/jrnls/copy_trnsfr.asc>
The author(s) shall have the following rights:
.
.
.
(4) The right to post and update the article on e-print servers as
long as files prepared and/or formatted by APS or its vendors are
not used for that purpose, and as long as access to the server does
not depend on payment of access, subscription, or membership fees.
Any such posting made or updated after acceptance of the article for
publication shall include a copyright notice...
Note that the APS publisher-formatted files are PDF page-images;
perhaps the right way to describe the service that ESA is offering is
that of archiving those PDF pages-images on behalf of their authors (to
save them the effort of self-archiving their own versions of their
refeeed final drafts).
The market can then decide whether authors think this is worth the
price -- as long as they are allowed the self-archiving option, hence
the choice...
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Stevan Harnad harnad_at_cogsci.soton.ac.uk
Professor of Cognitive Science harnad_at_princeton.edu
Department of Electronics and phone: +44 23-80 592-582
Computer Science fax: +44 23-80 592-865
University of Southampton
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
Highfield, Southampton
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
NOTE: A complete archive of this ongoing discussion of providing free
access to the refereed journal literature is available at the American
Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00):
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
You may join the list at the site above.
Discussion can be posted to:
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Received on Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT