Re: leveraging funder mandated deposition into central archives

From: (wrong string) édon Jean-Claude <jean.claude.guedon_at_UMONTREAL.CA>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:17:56 -0400

I think Mike has it just right. Let us work from where we are, such as the NIH mandate. It was hard enough to get. And if it is not perfect, well, too bad! But it looks pretty good to me.

Let us indeed leverage the NIH mandate. It is this success that is making Canadian funders move as well and that is important. And Mike's three-point proposal appears very reasonable to me for the North American situation. In other parts of the world, other ways of working may well be emerging, and that is fine too. So long as OA is getting closer.

Again, rough consensus and working code... :-)

Jean-Claude Guédon


-----Original Message-----
From: American Scientist Open Access Forum on behalf of Michael Eisen
Sent: Fri 7/25/2008 6:00 PM
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: leveraging funder mandated deposition into central archives
 
There are some interesting threads in the discussion about whether the
NIH should have mandated deposition into institutional archives. ButLet us indeed leverage this NIH mandate
the discussion is really kind of pointless, because, as we like to say
in these parts "it ain't gonna happen" - for both practical and
political reasons. And, whether Stevan likes it or not, other funders
are likely to follow suit (though - bless his heart - I'm sure Stevan
will never stop trying).

I would like to shift the discussion a bit to something a bit more
practical. Now that the NIH policy is in place, how can we most
effectively leverage it to advance open access. I have been trying
here at the University of California to do just this by proposing that
the University:

a) require author deposition in an institutional archive
b) require that authors amend copyright agreements with publishers to
not only allow deposition in the IR, but to allow redistribution and
reuse of the content (so, for example, the full-text could be ingested
into PMC, thereby satisfying the NIH mandate)
c) handle the deposition of material from the IR to PMC (which may, or
may not, require additional steps)

Honestly, I don't have high hopes at this point. But I'm going to keep
trying and would love some thoughts from the group about HOW to do
this (and not the endless debate about whether (b) is necessary that I
fear might ensue) and what other steps we might take make this a
teachable/actionable moment.

-Mike

Michael Eisen
UC Berkeley/PLoS
Received on Sat Jul 26 2008 - 11:10:06 BST