Re: Project RoMEO Listing of Journal Copyright Agreements

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:51:09 +0000

On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, Markus Schneider wrote:

> Why is the 55% figure (3897) of journals which allow self archving
> based on a number of 7135 journals rather than 24000 (the total number
> of journals)?
> http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ls/disresearch/romeo/Romeo%20Publisher%20Policies.htm

Because the Romeo figure is a sample, not the entire population. One
normally makes population estimates from samples.

> Isnt it a bit misleading to state that 55% of the journals allow either
> pre- or post print self archving when the actual number is closer to 15%
> (24000/3897)? (irrespective of whether one believes that publisher's
> consent to self archiving is necessary or not)

No, it is quite reasonable to state that 55% of the journals sampled
support self-archiving, and to extrapolate from the sample to the
population as a whole. (The only exception would be if there was any
reason to believe the sample was unrepresentative or biassed. But since
the Romeo sample was of the top journals rather than a random sample,
any bias from this is likely to be toward an under-estimate rather
than an over-estimate of the number of journals already formally
supporting self-archiving.)

Note:
    SHERPA will take over the Romeo Publisher Policy Table
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3100.html
    http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/

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 Open Access Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
    Post discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org

Unified Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
            http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
            http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
    http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
Received on Mon Dec 22 2003 - 16:51:09 GMT

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