Stevan-
>
> If the Public Library of Science is dedicated to promoting OA for all
> journal articles, and not just to promoting OA journal publishing for its
> own articles, I hope that it will elect to use its vast subsidy to promote
> the Unified Joint OA Provision Policy, rather than just promoting OAJ
alone.
>
There is a serious misconception underlying this statement, one that is all
too often repeated by people quibbling about what PLoS is doing. It needs to
be corrected.
PLoS does not have a "vast subsidy". We have a grant from the Moore
Foundation, the explicit purpose of which is to launch and promote open
access journals like PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine. We believe that the
long-term success of open access requires building broad community support,
and thus we have always been engaged in promoting open access in general.
However, we also believe that the long-term success of open access requires
a robust and vibrant open access publishing sector, and that PLoS has to
remain focused on this goal if we are to succeed.
-Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stevan Harnad" <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
To: <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: Draft letter for institutions to sign to implement Berlin
> On Thu, 25 Dec 2003, Michael Eisen wrote:
>
> > PLoS and BMC are open access publishers and thus have to be expected to
put
> > most of our effort into promoting open-access journals, just as you put
most
> > of your effort into promoting self-archiving.
>
> Mike,
>
> I put all of my effort into promoting open-access provision, via the
> Unified Joint Open-Access Provision Policy:
> (OAJ) Researchers publish their research in an open-access journal
if a
> suitable one exists, otherwise
> (OAA) they publish it in a suitable toll-access journal and also
> self-archive it in their own research institution's open-access research
archive.
>
> I have been promoting both components of this strategy for over 10 years,
> and the OAJ cost-recovery model in particular since well before either
> PLoS or BMC existed! For some time now I have been faithfully promoting
> them jointly, as the complementary components they are.
>
> OAA (self-archiving) is not promoting a product, nor has it ever had
> a subsidy or promotional budget, as PLoS and BMC have. It is being
> promoted purely on the strength of the existing evidence as the powerful
> and effective means that it is for providing immediate open access to all
> of the peer-reviewed research literature: The existing evidence is that
> OAA actually does provide at least three times as much OA as OAJ does
> today, and could provide OA to all current journal articles overnight,
> tonight.
>
> >sh> I hope... Public Library of Science (PLoS)... officially supports
> >sh> and promotes the signing of this statement to institutions in its
> >sh> own open-access promotional efforts. So far, both PLoS and BMC have
> >sh> been promoting only [OAJ] and not [OAA] in their negotiations with
> >sh> institutions.
> >
> > I can't speak for PLoS on my own, but will run this by our board and
staff
> > and will pass any additional suggestions they have on to you.
>
> If the Public Library of Science is dedicated to promoting OA for all
> journal articles, and not just to promoting OA journal publishing for its
> own articles, I hope that it will elect to use its vast subsidy to promote
> the Unified Joint OA Provision Policy, rather than just promoting OAJ
alone.
>
> 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 Fri Dec 26 2003 - 18:30:58 GMT