At 06:43 PM 3/12/00 +0000, Stevan Harnad wrote:
>On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Thomas J. Walker wrote:
>
>> Would it be correct to state in the announcement that ESA [Entomological
Society of America] 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).
>
I think the fact that what ESA is offering is immediate free Web access to
the image of the archived paper version is key. Other things being equal,
authors want to give those interested the most convenient access possible
to what is easily verified as the exact equivalent of the archived version.
The fact (if true) that until now, no scientific society has elected to
profit from offering its authors this optional new service seems strange,
especially in view of the fact that many societies have invested heavily in
and are losing money on posting restricted-access electronic versions of
their journals.
>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...
>
Free Web access as offered by ESA includes the right to self archive and
specifically to post the PDF file on any Web server that will have it. The
one aspect of this service yet to be implemented is the posting of the
articles on PubMed Central. ESA is currently trying to arrange this.
Tom Walker
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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
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Received on Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT