-- Head of Development, Eduserv Foundation http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/ http://efoundations.typepad.com/ andy.powell_at_eduserv.org.uk +44 (0)1225 474319 > -----Original Message----- > From: Repositories discussion list > [mailto:JISC-REPOSITORIES_at_JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad > Sent: 08 March 2008 12:07 > To: JISC-REPOSITORIES_at_JISCMAIL.AC.UK > Subject: Re: Central versus institutional self-archiving > > On Sat, 8 Mar 2008, Atanu Garai/Lists wrote: > > > Dear Colleagues > > This question is very basic. Institutions all over the world are > > developing their own repositories to archive papers written > by staffs. > > On the other hand, it is very much feasible to develop thematic and > > consortia repositories wherein authors all over the world > can archive > > their papers very easily. Both the approaches have their > own pros and > > cons. However, having few big thematic (e.g. subject based) and/or > > consortia (e.g. Indian universities archive) repositories is more > > advantageous than maintaining hundreds of thousands small > IRs, taking > > cost, management, infrastructure and technology considerations. > > Moreover, knowledge sharing and preservation becomes easier > across the > > participating individuals and institutions in large IRs. If this > > advantages are so obvious, it is not understandable why there is so > > much advocacy for building IRs in all institutions? > > Not only are the advantages of central repositories (CRs) > over institutional repositories (IRs) not obvious, but the > pro's of IRs vastly outweigh those of CRs on every count: > > (1) The research providers are not a central entity but a > worldwide network of independent research institutions > (mostly universities). > > (2) Those independent institutions share with their own > researchers a direct (and even somewhat competitive) interest > in archiving, evaluating, showcasing, and maximizing the > usage and impact of their own research output. (Most > institutions already have IRs, and there are provisional > back-up CRs such as Depot for institutionally unaffiliated > researchers or those whose institutions don't yet have their > own IR.) http://roar.eprints.org/ http://deposit.depot.edina.ac.uk/ > > (3) The OAI protocol has made all these distributed institutions' > repositories interoperable, meaning that their metadata (or > data) can all be harvested into multiple central collections, > as desired, and searched, navigated and data-mined at that > level. (Distributed archiving is also important for > mirroring, backup and preservation.) > > (4) Deposit takes the same (small) number of keystrokes > institutionally or centrally, so there is no difference > there; but researchers normally have one IR whereas the > potential CRs for their work are multiple. (The only "global" > CR is Google, and that's harvested.) > http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/10688/ > > (5) The distributed costs of institutional self-archiving are > certainly lower than than maintaining CRs (how many? for what > fields? and who maintains them and pays their costs?), > particularly as the costs of a local IR are low, and they can > cover all of an institution's research output as well as many > other forms of institutional digital assets. > > (6) Most important of all, although research funders can > reinforce self-archiving mandates, the natural and universal > way to ensure that IRs (and hence harvested CRs) are actually > filled with all of the world's research output, funded and > unfunded, is for institutions to mandate and monitor the > self-archiving of their own research output, in their own > IRs, rather than hoping it will find its way willy-nilly into > external CRs. > http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/ > > This topic has been much discussed since in the American > Scientist Open Access Forum. See the topic threads "Central > vs. Distributed Archives" (since 1999) and "Central versus > institutional self-archiving". > > See also: > > Swan, A., Needham, P., Probets, S., Muir, A., Oppenheim, C., > O'Brien, A., Hardy, R., Rowland, F. and Brown, S. (2005) > Developing > a model for e-prints and open access journal content in > UK further > and higher education. Learned Publishing, 18 (1). pp. 25-40. > http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11000/ > > Harnad, S. (2008) Optimize the NIH Mandate > Now: Deposit Institutionally, Harvest > Centrally. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/15002/ > > Harnad, S. (2008) How To Integrate > University and Funder Open Access Mandates. > http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/369-guid.html > > > Stevan Harnad > AMERICAN SCIENTIST OPEN ACCESS FORUM: > http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open- > Access-Forum.html > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/ > > UNIVERSITIES and RESEARCH FUNDERS: > If you have adopted or plan to adopt a policy of providing > Open Access to your own research article output, please > describe your policy at: > http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php > http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html > http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html > > OPEN-ACCESS-PROVISION POLICY: > BOAI-1 ("Green"): Publish your article in a suitable > toll-access journal > http://romeo.eprints.org/ > OR > BOAI-2 ("Gold"): Publish your article in an open-access > journal if/when > a suitable one exists. > http://www.doaj.org/ > AND > in BOTH cases self-archive a supplementary version of > your article > in your own institutional repository. > http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/ > http://archives.eprints.org/ > http://openaccess.eprints.org/ > > > > Thank you for reflecting on this issue. > > Best > > Atanu Garai > > Online Networking Specialist > > Globethics.net > > International Secretariat: > > 150, route de Ferney > > CH-1211 Geneva 2 > > Switzerland > > Tel: 41.22791.6249/67 > > Fax: 41.22710.2386 > > New Delhi Contact: > > Tel: 91.98996.22884 > > Email: garai_at_globethics.net > > atanu.garai_at_gmail.com > > Web: www.globethics.net > > > > >Received on Sat Mar 08 2008 - 17:42:08 GMT
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