On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, [identity deleted] wrote:
> In an article I've written about the open-access revolution, I quote you
> briefly from your 1997 (right?) Ariadne (right?) article ("For centuries,
> it was only out of reluctant necessity that authors of esoteric
> publications entered into the Faustian Bargain of allowing a price tag to
> be erected as a barrier between their work and its intended readership ..."
> etc.)
> (Story run date not scheduled yet, but will be visible at some point in the
> next week or so (I hope) at [deleted])
That quote and that date are correct, but I have to say that a lot of
water has flowed under the bridge and a lot of articles (29, actually)
have flowed from my pen on this rapidly developing subject since 1997
(e.g., the OAI, the BOAI, FOS, BMC and PLoS)!
In particular, the copyright problem is pretty much behind us
insofar as self-archiving is concerned: 55% of publishers already
formally (and perhaps another 30% of them informally, if asked on a
per-paper basis) support author self-archiving of an open-access version
of their toll-access article in their own institutional eprint archive:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ls/disresearch/romeo/Romeo%20Publisher%20Policies.htm
Also it has become clear since 1997 that "esoteric publications" amounts
to the 2,000,000 annual articles in the planet's 20,000 refereed journals,
across all research disciplines.
It has also become clear since 1997 that the "Faustian Bargain" is (and
always was) about research impact being lost because of access-tolls:
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
Harnad, S. (2003) Measuring and Maximising Research
Impact. Times Higher Education Supplement. Friday, June 6 2003.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/thes.html
Harnad, S. (2003) Maximising Research Impact Through
Self-Archiving.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/che.htm
Harnad, S. (2003) Self-Archive Unto Others as Ye Would Have Them
Self-Archive Unto You. The Australian Higher Education Supplement.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/unto-others.html
And our most recent Ariadne article on this topic is this year's:
Harnad, S., Carr, L., Brody, T. & Oppenheim, C. (2003)
Mandated online RAE CVs Linked to University Eprint
Archives: Improving the UK Research Assessment
Exercise whilst making it cheaper and easier. Ariadne.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/Ariadne-RAE.htm
Stevan Harnad
NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
or
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
Discussion can be posted to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org
Received on Fri Jul 18 2003 - 04:01:15 BST