Pertinent Prior AmSci Topic Thread:
"Journal Papers vs. Books: The Direct/Indirect Income Trade-off" (Jul 1999)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0318.html
"What About the Author Self-Archiving of Books?" (Nov 1999)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0451.html
"Comparing Open Access Effects for Books and Journal Articles" (May 2005)
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4565.html
On Fri, 7 Jul 2006, Pablo Ortellado wrote:
> Dear Stevan,
> I was only CCed to this email but I would like to comment on your
> argument. I think that the flexibility that you suggested is very fine
> for someone who sympathizes with Open Access, but not very fine for
> someone who is on the front line defending Open Access. You are probably
> right about the articles in scientific periodicals being strategically
> more central than books (although that may not be true for some
> disciplines in the Humanities, specially in Europe or Latin America) -
Dear Pablo,
Journal articles are not only strategically central for OA, not only have
they been specifically singled out as OA's fundamental target from the
very beginning of the OA movement, but they are the only exception-free
category of (published) author give-aways.
Authors are of course welcome and encouraged to self-archive their books and
book-chapters if they can and wish -- but it is an undeniable fact that
most authors do *not* wish to give away their books (online or otherwise),
whereas not a single journal-article author has ever wished otherwise
(though 85% of them still don't bother to *do* it -- hence the need for
self-archiving mandates).
It does not help the OA movement (*including* any future probability
that more books will be made OA too) if at this point the distinction
-- between (1) the clear, exception-free case of articles and (2) the
complicated, mixed and unclear case of books (in which the author wish
[and have the right] to give them away free online) is the rare exception
-- is blurred and they are all treated as one and the same kind of thing,
insofar as OA is concerned.
I recommend patience for now: Let the clearcut case for article OA be
made and won, and then address the much more complicated case of books:
Don't weigh down the immediate and winnable case for article-OA -- which,
despite its utter simplicity and triviality, has taken so very long to
bring into focus in the world research community -- with the much more
complex and cloudy case for book-OA. It helps neither constituency and
merely confuses those who have only begun at long last to get the point
about OA!
I know there are disciplines that are more book-based than journal-based,
but they too will have to wait. The case for book OA is much more
complicated, will take much longer to sort out and bring into focus, and
will benefit from first successfully sorting out the much simpler and more
universal case of article OA.
(Book chapters fall somewhere in between, and that is why we are stressing
that it is for the authors of the individual chapters of our book on OA
to self-archive their chapters in their IRs, not for the book publisher,
Chandos, to make it OA of their own accord, and at their own expense, and
risk. They have done enough by publishing the book!)
> but it is certainly not strategic to publish a book about Open Access
> without Open Access to it. This is something that our adversaries will
> most certainly use against us - probably saying that even pro-OA authors
> agree that the editorial filter offered by traditional publishing is
> essential to providing reliability to academic articles etc.
Not at all: OA is about articles today, and books in general have nothing
to do with it. Moreover, Alexander Graham Bell would not have had much
success informing potential users of the benefits of the newly-invented
telephone if he had insisted on informing them only via telephone! The
providers and users of what is already already free online are not
the only population that needs to be informed: The readers of books,
on paper, are our targets too! Otherwise we are preaching only to the choir...
Best wishes,
Stevan Harnad
> Best,
> Pablo Ortellado
>
> Stevan Harnad wrote:
> > On Tue, 4 Jul 2006, Rune Nilsen wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Right question! Where is the OA version? [of the Jacobs (ed) (2006)
> >> book on OA]
> >>
> >
> > Dear Rune,
> >
> > Your question is legitimate, and most of the chapters of the book
> > *have* been self-archived by their authors (both of mine have, Alma's
> > has, I'm sure Peter's has, etc.) but I have to point out that OA's
> > primary target is the 2.5 million articles that appear in the world's
> > 24,000 peer-reviewed journals, all those articles being, without
> > exception, author give-aways, with the author seeking neither
> > royalties nor fees, just research impact (i.e., usage and uptake).
> >
> > That is by no means true of all books, nor should it be: Many book
> > authors will continue to want to write in the hope of receiving
> > royalties, and to sign copyright agreements with their publishers
> > that ensure that they receive royalties. Some (including me) think
> > that even for books, making the online version accessible for free
> > will enhance sales for narrow-spectrum books reporting research, but
> > this is by no means a universal and it is not to be assumed that all
> > or most book authors (or even book chapter authors) will want to
> > self-archive.
> >
> > First things first: Let's keep our eyes on the (2.5 million)
> > ball(s)...
> >
> > Stevan Harnad
> >
> >
> >> Rune Nilsen
> >> Professor International Health
> >> University of Bergen
> >> N-5021 Bergen Norway
> >>
> >> Tlph.: +4741479217
> >>
> >>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: owner-boai-forum_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk
> >>> [mailto:owner-boai-forum_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Jorge
> >>> A. S. Machado
> >>> Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 3:34 PM
> >>> To: 'BOAI Forum'
> >>> Cc: paort_at_uol.com.br; 'Gisele da Silva Craveiro'
> >>> Subject: RES: [BOAI] OA book
> >>>
> >>> Is this book OA? Where is the online version?
> >>>
> >>> Jorge Machado
> >>> Acesso Aberto Brasil
> >>> www.acessoaberto.org
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Mensagem original-----
> >>> De: owner-boai-forum_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk
> >>> [mailto:owner-boai-forum_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk] Em nome de Peter Suber
> >>> Enviada em: sexta-feira, 30 de junho de 2006 14:48
> >>> Para: SPARC-OAForum_at_arl.org; boai-forum_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk
> >>> Assunto: [BOAI] OA book
> >>>
> >>> [Forwarding from Neil Jacobs. --Peter.]
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Colleagues
> >>>
> >>> A new book, documenting the major strands and issues of open access,
> >>> will be published 17th July.
> >>>
> >>> Jacobs, N., Eds. (2006) Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and
> >>> Economic Aspects. Chandos
> >>>
> >>> It covers the rationale, history, economics, technology and culture of
> >>> open access, views from major stakeholders, updates from around the
> >>> world, and visions of the future. The following authors have
> >>> contributed:
> >>>
> >>> Alma Swan, Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Jean-Claude Guédon, Andrew Odlyzko,
> >>> Michael Kurtz, Tim Brody, Chris Awre, Stevan Harnad, Arthur
> >>> Sale, Robert
> >>> Terry, Robert Kiley, Matthew Cockerill, Mary Waltham, Colin Steele, Leo
> >>> Waaijers, Peter Suber, Frederick J. Friend, John Shipp, D. K. Sahu,
> >>> Ramesh C. Parmar, Clifford Lynch, Nigel Shadbolt and Les Carr.
> >>>
> >>> Many of the chapters are, of course, available open access on the web.
> >>>
> >>> Further details of the book available at:
> >>> http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?re
> >>>
> >> cordID=10
> >>
> >>> 3
> >>>
> >>> To pre-order a copy, please contact:
> >>>
> >>> Turpin Distribution Services Limited
> >>> Pegasus Drive
> >>> Stratton Business Park
> >>> Biggleswade
> >>> Bedfordshire SG18 8TQ
> >>> U.K.
> >>> Tel: +44 (0)1767 604951
> >>> Fax: +44 (0)1767 601640
> >>> General e-mail: custserv_at_turpin-distribution.com
> >>>
> >>> Best wishes
> >>> Neil
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> Neil Jacobs <n.jacobs_at_jisc.ac.uk>
> >>> JISC Executive, Beacon House, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1QU
> >>> +44 (0)117 33 10772 / 07768 040179
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
Received on Sat Jul 08 2006 - 17:23:10 BST