Validity of self-publishing species names: FW: Long-term preservation of Open Access Journals secured

From: Donat Agosti <agosti_at_AMNH.ORG>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 20:36:42 +0430

Dear Francesco et al.,

I think, we need to think about preservation of taxonomic journals the same
way we think about nomenclature and taxonomy: As specialists.

We do not want to have lawyers, librarians etc prescribe how we deal with
animal names or discover species. But this is what we do the way we talk
about online publications.

What we should need to do is to prepare a list of concerns, questions and
then seek advice rather than prepare conclusions ourselves for which we are
not competent.

For example, below is a press release I just picked up from the American
Scientist Open Access Forum list that just has been issued about long term
preservation of open access journals. And this is clearly more than what six
German libraries do.

The mere fact, that I can sit in Teheran and follow this discussion and have
access to a huge amount of data, and provide a little bit, is far beyond
what six German libraries do: it has to do with global resources and global
infrastructure that are getting into place, and if not, WE have to add
ourselves in collaboration with ongoing initiatives. And this is definitely
not continuing demonizing online publications.

Donat


..............

For immediate release

April 1st, 2009



For more information, contact:

Lars Björnshauge lars.bjornshauge_at_lub.lu.se or Anna-Lena Johansson
anna-lena.johansson_at_lub.lu.se (for DOAJ)

Marcel Ras, marcel.ras_at_kb.nl or Els van Eijck van Heslinga,
els.vaneijck_at_kb.nl (for e-Depot/ KB long term archiving)

Peter Axelsson, Swedish Library Association, pax_at_biblioteksforeningen.org



Long-term preservation of Open Access Journals secured





The Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) - Lund University Libraries and
the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) today announced
the start of a cooperation in order to secure long-term preservation of open
access journals. The Swedish Library Association is generously acting as
sponsor.



Long-term preservation of scholarly publications is of major importance for
the research community. New formats of scholarly publications, new business
models and new ways of dissemination are constantly being developed. To
secure permanent access to scientific output for the future, focussed on the
preservation of articles published in open access journals, a cooperation
between Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ ~V www.doaj.org), developed
and operated by Lund University Libraries and the e-Depot of the National
Library of the Netherlands (www.kb.nl/e-Depot) has been initiated.



The composition of the DOAJ collection (currently 4000 journals) is
characterized by a very large number of publishers (2.000+), each publishing
a very small number of journals on different platforms, in different formats
and in more than 50 different languages. Many of these publishers are ~V with
a number of exceptions ~V fragile when it comes to financial, technical and
administrative sustainability.



At present DOAJ and KB carry out a pilot project aimed at setting up a
workflow for processing open access journals listed with DOAJ. In the pilot
a limited number of open access journals will be subject to long term
preservation. These activities will be scaled up shortly and long term
archiving of the journals listed in the DOAJ at KB~Rs e-Depot will become an
integral part of the service provided by the DOAJ.



Directory of Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals is developed and maintained by Lund
University Libraries, Head Office since 2003. The service aims to give users
a one-stop-shop to quality controlled, scientific open access journals in
full text. DOAJ is the authoritative source for open access journals with
over 8 million monthly hits, up to 4000 journals published in almost 100
countries. ~SWe are very proud of engaging in these activities, that will add
more value to Open Access journals and we appreciate a lot the
cooperativeness of the National Library of the Netherlands with regard to
the e-Depot, the most experienced and qualified partner we imagine in this
regard~T says Lars Björnshauge, Director of Libraries at Lund University,
Sweden, ~Sand of course we are very thankful that the Swedish Library
Association graciously has decided to fund these activities~T.



The e-Depot

The e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands is a digital
archiving environment that ensures long-term access to digital objects which
would otherwise be threatened by rapidly evolving software and hardware
platforms as well as media decay. It is the dedicated archiving environment
for the KB~Rs national electronic deposit collection. In addition, it will
include the Dutch web archive and digitised master images. In line with the
international nature of information provision, the KB has extended its
e-Depot services to international publishers worldwide (now 12 million
objects). The e-Depot is supported by sustained research and development
efforts geared towards maintaining the integrity of stored digital objects.
~SThe content of the DOAJ collection contains many new, specific aspects to
overcome. We are sure that we can rise to the challenge, working together
for the benefit of present and future generations~T, says Marcel Ras, Manager
e-Depot.



The Swedish Library Association

~SThe Swedish Library Association is very happy to support this project. This
is a very specific manifestation of the Association~Rs engagement in
supporting long term access to publicly funded research publications~T, says
Britta Lejon, chairman of the Swedish Library Association.


The Association works actively for an implementation of a national policy
for libraries and library services in Sweden. In its program for a national
policy the Association has among other policy areas included intensified
activities in securing Open Access to research publications.
Received on Wed Apr 01 2009 - 18:07:49 BST