Re: Is ESA first?

From: Thomas J. Walker <tjw_at_GNV.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 16:05:56 -0500

At 02:58 PM 3/13/00 +0000, you wrote:
>On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Thomas J. Walker wrote:
>
>> > >sh> The market can then decide whether authors think this is worth the
>> > >sh> price -- as long as they are allowed the self-archiving option,
hence
>> > >sh> the choice...
>>
>> ESA requires authors to sign a copyright release that has
>> no provision for self-archiving.
>>
>> members of all the remaining scientific societies that
>> publish journals should see to it that their societies adopt these two
>> policies:
>>
>> 1. Authors are specifically permitted to self-archive their own versions of
>> the paper-archived version of their articles.
>>
>> 2. Authors are permitted to buy, at a fair price, immediate free Web access
>> to their articles.
>>
>> The first is important because it will demonstrate that the society is not
>> trying to control the distribution of content.
>>
>> The second is important because it offers a market-driven, nondisruptive
>> transition to free Web access to all journal articles.
>
>Thomas, maybe it's just me, but I still can't determine from the
>above: Does or does not ESA allow author self-archiving (of their own
>final, accepted draft), without having to pay ESA anything extra? If it
>does, then this is a true, benign option, and the most progressive one
>I've seen to date, completely in harmony with the mission of a learned
>society and the possibilities opened up by the new medium.
>
>Sorry to keep asking you to spell it out, but "no provision" still
>sounds abmbiguous to me...
>

To spell it out, ESA requires its authors to sign away _all_ their rights
to their articles. It _should_ do what APS has done and specifically
permit self-archiving of the content of the refereed version. In ESA's
defense, I am sure ESA's GB would never authorize taking action against an
author who self-archived content. In fact I was told that in a straw vote
in June 1999, ESA's GB voted unanimously that ESA could not expect to
continue to make money selling content. [This vote was not recorded in the
minutes.]

[Could you be confusing ESA with the Florida Entomological Society, which I
told you earlier does not require authors to transfer copyright?]

Tom Walker

 =========================================================================
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 Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Dec 10 2010 - 19:45:43 GMT