I regret to say that Stevan is incorrect in some of his comments. For
previous RAEs, there WERE licensing arrangements put in place to permit
p/copies of articles to be passed to RAE panels. he is probably unaware of
this because no great publicity was associated with the arrangements that
were set up.
Licences are likewise needed this time around because the Universities do
not (in general) own the copyright in these items, so they are "dealing"
with someone else's (usually a publisher's) copyright material. Such
copying by Universities cannot be considered "fair dealing" as it is not
for one of the permitted purposes, and indeed is not permitted under any
other exception to copyright. So I am glad that PLS is arranging a licence
so that institutions can pass copies of items to RAE panels without risk of
copyright infringement.
In summary, I'm afraid the law does require licensing this time around, as
it did for the previous RAEs.
My understanding is that the RAE panels want pdfs rather than author
postprints because they need the reassurance that the thing they are
reading is identical to that which was published. Since the RAE is an
auditing exercise in which the onus is on the integrity of what is being
submitted, HECE no doubt feel that the pdf offers the necessary security.
Having said all that, things would have been so much simpler if, as Stevan
has argued, mandated self-archived articles with copyright owned by the
academic/HEI had been around years ago!
Charles
Quoting Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>:
> Thanks to Peter Suber for drawing this to my attention. (I was not on
> LIS-E-Journals but have now joined to be able to reply.)
>
> Below, Kate Price of U. Surrey asks whether publishers would allow
> authors
> to make electronic versions of their articles available to the RAE
> assessors (in place of the usual paper submissions). Alicia Wise of the
> Publishers Licensing Society replies that licensing arrangements are
> being made with HEFCE.
>
> First, I would like to point out such a colossal absurdity in this that
> it takes one's breath away. Then, more constructively, I will point out
> what is likely to be the actual outcome, mooting the entire question.
>
> (1) The Absurdity: If for RAE 1996 and 2001 there was no need felt to
> make a
> "licensing arrangement" in order for authors to submit paper copies of
> their published articles for RAE assessment, why on earth would anyone
> imagine that a licensing arrangement is required for the electronic
> versions? I am not in the habit of asking my publisher for permission to
> send copies of my own article for evaluation, whether for RAE, salary
> review, or research grant funding. (What on earth were HEFCE thinking?).
>
> (On top of this, it is almost certain that it is HEFCE's completely
> arbitrary, unnecessary and dysfunctional insistence, to date, on the
> publisher's PDF for RAE assessment that is the source of all the fuss.)
>
> (2) The Constructive Alternative: RCUK is, one hopes, on the verge of
> mandating that the final, peer-reviewed, accepted draft ("postprint") of
> all articles resulting from RCUK funding must be deposited in the
> fundee's
> institutional repository immediately upon acceptance for publication.
> http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/index.asp
> UK Universities are also poised to follow suit, with mandatory depositing
> of all their research output.
> http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php
>
> The solution is hence crystal clear. Forget about licensing! The
> postprints should be used for RAE assessment. The PDFs are infinitely
> more trouble than they are worth: their marginal value over the
> postprint is next to nothing. HEFCE should join the chorus (of
> research funding councils and research institutions themselves) in
> mandating that all postprints be deposited in the university's IR.
>
> Deposit mandates are wonderful things, for they cater for all tastes.
> Ninety-three percent of journals have already agreed that access to them
> can be set to Open Access (OA). (Note, again, that *no* permission is
> needed from anyone in order to deposit the postprints themselves!) The
> journal's endorsement of the author's making the deposit OA is welcome,
> but not necessary either. But if an author for some reason prefers not
> to make the deposited article OA, they can make it RA (restricted
> access) instead. The RAE assessors can then be given access to the RA
> deposit.
>
> Now, before everyone starts squawking about all sorts of legalistic and
> pedantic niceties, sit and think about it for a few moments, and try to
> sort out what really has substance in all this, and what is just
> officious fluff: No, the difference between PDF and postscript is *not*
> a problem. No, providing access to RAE assessors for a restricted access
> deposit is not a problem. No, mandating deposit is not a problem. In
> fact all of these are natural developments, optimal for research,
> researchers, their institutions, their funders and their assessors --
> and they are also inevitable.
>
> So we can either keep talking ourselves through more epicycles, or we
> can just go ahead and do the optimal and inevitable (and obvious)
> at last.
>
> Harnad, S. (2001) "Research access, impact and assessment." Times
> Higher Education Supplement 1487: p. 16.
> http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents/disk0/00/00/16/83/index.html
>
> "UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) review" (Oct, 2002)
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2324.html
>
> 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 35 (April 2003).
> http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/harnad/
>
> "Bronze release of RAE software for OA repositories" (2006)
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5097.html
>
> Stevan Harnad
> American Scientist Open Access Forum
>
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
>
> >> Sent: 15 February 2006 17:46
> >> To: LIS-E-JOURNALS_at_JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> >> Subject: Question for publishers - Research Assessment Exercise 2008
> >>
> >> This is really a question for any publishers scanning this list, but
> UK
> >> HE librarians will be interested in the answers.
> >>
> >> The UK Research Assessment Exercise will occur again in 2008...
> >> http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2005/03/rae0305.pdf
> >> I'm concerned about... published journal articles,
> >> published conference proceedings and published books (and individual
> >> book chapters).
> >>
> >> Paragraph 96 states that institutions will be expected to make
> published
> >> journal articles, conference proceedings and book chapters available
> "in
> >> electronic format" to the assessors... "the method of submission may
> >> involve HEIs depositing items onto a protected website or giving
> access to
> >> institutional repositories of publications"...
> >>
> >> 1) Has the Higher Education Funding Council for England made any
> >> approaches to publishers regarding allowing electronic access to
> >> published materials specifically for the RAE?
> >>
> >> 2) What are publishers' opinions on the copyright implications of this
> >> (given that this access would be for a limited period, to a very
> limited
> >> audience, and crucial for the main business of a UK university). Are
> >> publishers likely to object strongly?
> >>
> >> Kate Price
> >> E-Strategy & Resources Manager
> >> University Library
> >> E-mail: c.l.price_at_surrey.ac.uk
>
> > Dear Kate,
> >
> > My name is Alicia Wise, and I work for an organisation called the
> > Publishers Licensing Society. Graham Taylor at the Publishers
> Association
> > kindly forwarded your email to me.
> >
> > HEFCE and PLS are actively working on a licence so that RAE panels can
> > access published works for their review purposes. The licence would
> cover
> > printed and digital copies. I'd be happy to update you on progress, or
> you
> > could speak with Ed Hughes who is the RAE Manager at HEFCE.
> >
> > With very best wishes,
> >
> > Alicia
> >
> > Dr Alicia Wise
> > Chief Executive
> > Publishers Licensing Society
> > London, WC1E 6HH
>
Received on Sat Feb 18 2006 - 21:10:33 GMT