There's a difference between 'refute' (= produce evidence to disprove) and
'rebut' (= argue against). Stevan's letter does the latter, not the
former; there is no evidence whatever that self-archiving will not damage
journals or those who produce them
Sally
Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1903 871 686
Fax: +44 (0)1903 871 457
Email: sally.morris_at_alpsp.org
----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Suber" <peters_at_earlham.edu>
To: "SPARC Open Access Forum" <SPARC-OAForum_at_arl.org>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 2:22 PM
Subject: Leading academics back UK Research Councils on self-archiving
[Forwarding from the University of Southampton. --Peter.]
News from the University of Southampton
Ref: 05/155 22 August 2005
Leading academics back UK Research Councils on self-archiving
-------------------------------------------------------------
Academics from some of the UK's top universities are giving public support
to the UK Research Councils' (RCUK) proposed self-archiving policy.
The academics, who include inventor of the World Wide Web, University of
Southampton Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, have co-signed a document
refuting claims made by the Association of Learned and Professional Society
Publishers (ALPSP) that the RCUK policy would have 'disastrous consequences'
for journals.
The claims were made in a letter from ALPSP to RCUK in response to the
RCUK's position statement on Access to Research Outputs issued in June.
The rebuttal document, which has been signed by representatives from the
universities of Southampton, Cambridge, Loughborough, Sheffield and
Strathclyde and will be sent to RCUK by the end of the month, details the
reasons why ALPSP's claims are unsubstantiated, not least because evidence
has shown that not only can journals co-exist and thrive alongside author
self-archiving, they can actually benefit from it.
Authors, institutions, funders and publishers benefit from the increased
visibility, use and impact of research articles that are self-archived and
freely available to all.
In a covering letter to Professor Ian Diamond, Chair of the RCUK Executive
Group, the academics state: 'We believe that RCUK should go ahead and
implement its immediate self-archiving mandate, without further delay. That
done, RCUK can meet ALPSP and other interested parties to discuss and plan
how the UK Institutional Repositories can collaborate with journals and
their publishers in sharing the new-found benefits of maximising UK research
access and impact.'
Ends
Notes to Editors:
1. RCUK draft policy proposal:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/index.asp
ALPSP critique of RCUK proposal:
http://www.alpsp.org/news/rcuk/default.htm
Open Letter to Research Councils UK: Rebuttal of ALPSP Critique:
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/18-guid.html
Journal Publishing and Author Self-Archiving: Peaceful Co-Existence and
Fruitful Collaboration:
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/20-guid.html
2. The University of Southampton is the home of GNU EPrints software,
the most widely used software for building Institutional Repositories, and
the JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) TARDis (Targeting
Academic Research for Deposit and Disclosure) project, which has been
investigating the technical, cultural and academic issues which surround
institutional repositories.
3. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research
institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and
scholarship. The University has over 20,000 students and over 5000 staff.
Its annual turnover is in the region of £270 million.
For further information:
Professor Stevan Harnad, School of Electronics and Computer Science,
Tel: 023 8059 2582, email: harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk
Joyce Lewis, Communications Manager, Electronics and Computer Science,
University of Southampton, Tel: 023 8059 5453, email:
j.k.lewis_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk
---------------------------------
Sue Wilson
Press & PR Officer
Media Relations
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton SO17 1BJ
Received on Tue Aug 23 2005 - 16:02:28 BST