2008/8/21 Stevan Harnad <amsciforum_at_gmail.com>:
> One can only leave it to posterity to judge the wisdom of the Max Planck
> Society in being prepared to divert "central" funds toward funding the
> publication of (some) MPS research in (some) Gold OA journals (PLoS)without
> first mandating Green OA self-archiving for all MPS research output.
>
> It is not as if MPS does not have an Institutional Repository (IR): It
> hasEDOC, containing 108,933 records (although it is not clear how many of
> those are peer-reviewed research articles, how many of them are OA, and what
> percentage of MPS's current annual research output is deposited and OA).
Some observations can be found at
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/4159366/ (2007)
On 2007 March 12 there were 14934 full text files on the server, only
5245 with Open Access.
> But, despite being a long-time friend of OA, MPS has no Green OA
> self-archiving mandate. I have been told, repeatedly, that "in Germany one
> cannot mandate self-archiving," but I do not believe it, not for a moment.
> This is pure lack of reflection and ingenuity:
As I have written several times I don't believe in the immediate
deposit/ mail-button mantra. There are (overestimated) legal problems
in Germany with mandating on the university level. For MPG one has to
ask if the publication is made for hire. There is not an easy answer
taking into account the right of research freedom
("Forschungsfreiheit") in German constitutional law.
Klaus Graf
http://archiv.twoday.net
Received on Thu Aug 21 2008 - 22:16:55 BST