On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Christopher D. Green wrote:
> [Re: http://htpprints.yorku.ca/ Why do]
> you think there is enough interest in a site of this kind that roughly
> one new person registers every day on average, but very few of these
> people have actually posted their own work to the site. Are there
> concerns about the copyright implications of doing so? Is there
> confusion about exactly what sorts of work are appropriate? Are there
> other reasons at work here? What actions on my part do you think would
> most encourage people to post their papers to the HTP Prints site?
It's not unique to HTPPrints. It's so far true of every discipline
(other than Physics and Mathematics where self-archiving is growing
linearly:
http://arXiv.org/show_monthly_submissions ): All researchers
welcome free online access to the refereed research literature; if it
is available, they use it; but they have not yet made the causal
connection between its availability and their own actions. It is some
version of the Kantian categorical imperative, the Golden Rule, and the
principle that they must Give In Order To Receive that has not yet
reached the consciousness of researchers across disciplines (other than
physics/mathematics).
For some indications of how archivers and non-archivers are thinking
about these things across disciplines, see:
http://www.eprints.org/results/
It will come. But if you want it to happen sooner rather than later,
you will need to be an activist, not just with researchers, but with
university administrators, tirelessly putting the message across that
self-archiving means enhanced visibility/uptake/impact for their own
researchers' research, and enhanced access to other researchers'
research, enhanced research income, and perhaps eventually also reduced
library expenditure (on refereed journal subscriptions).
But without relentless activism, these welcome benefits will be delayed
in coming.
See:
7. What you can do now to free the refereed literature online
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Tp/resolution.htm#7
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stevan Harnad
Departement de Psychologie
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
CP 8888 Succursale Centre-Ville
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 3P8
harnad_at_soton.ac.uk
http://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing free
access to the refereed journal literature online is available at the
American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01):
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
or
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
You may join the list at the amsci site.
Discussion can be posted to:
american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org
Received on Thu Oct 25 2001 - 01:57:32 BST