What a silly fuss. First, the article is open access at the journal site.
Second, it will go up on the Key Perspectives website at some point, but
that is not the best place to self-archive, for all the reasons we all know
(and as we are just about to do a major overhaul of our website it will
probably wait until after that). Third, the publisher was doing such great
things with the manuscript (yes, they do that in some cases, and this was
one of them; thanks, Rosalind) that I didn't have a 'final author version'
until the point of publication. Fourth, and most important, as soon as I did
have a final author version, it (in Word) was immediately self-archived at
my institutional repository (here:
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/), whence
it will be indexed by Google Scholar and OAIster. It is currently in the
buffer awaiting approval from the repository manager. And of course, when I
receive the pdf from the publisher it will forthwith be sent to nestle
alongside the final author version in the repository, thanks to the very
(indeed, overly) generous 'green' policy of Sigma XI.
Alma Swan
Key Perspectives Ltd
Truro, UK
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
> [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAX
I.ORG] On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad
> Sent: 05 April 2007 18:23
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Re: Alma Swan on Open Access in American Scientist
> (the journal)
>
> On Thu, 5 Apr 2007, Sylvan Katz wrote:
>
> > > Alma Swan's article "Open Access and the Progress of
> Science" has
> > > just appeared in American Scientist (the journal)
> May-June Issue 2007:
> > >
> > >
> http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/55131
> >
> > I had a good laugh when I read the article about
> open-access and then
> > tried to download the pdf file to my archive for reference ONLY to
> > receive the message
> >
> > "If you are an active member of Sigma Xi, please log in now to
> > download this PDF for free. If you are an American Scientist
> > subscriber, log in now to proceed with your order request.
> Subscribers
> > pay $5 per PDF. Public users pay $12 per PDF. Click here to proceed
> > with your download as a public user."
> >
> > The irony was just too much!
>
> But there is no irony at all!
>
> Open Access means free access online.
>
> You accessed the entire article (html version, in three
> pieces), freely, online at the AmSci's own website.
>
> In addition, Alma Swan, an advocate of self-archiving, will
> no doubt self-archive the article in her Institutional Repository.
>
> The fact that the American Scientist (a subscription-based
> journal, not a Gold OA journal) does not give away its PDF
> for free is not an irony, and is not a handicap, as long as
> AmSci does not try to prevent Alma from self-archiving (and
> it does not).
>
> Hence the version you read free on the AmSci site is in fact
> a *bonus*, not an irony!
>
> Stevan Harnad
>
> PS You could, of course, have downloaded the HTML version you
> accessed!
> (There are still *profound* misunderstandings about the true
> power and potential of the online medium -- and of what comes
> with the territory, when you make a text OA.)
>
Received on Sat Apr 07 2007 - 05:12:46 BST