UCL's Open Access mandate was adopted in October 2008, but only
announced in June 2009. It would be helpful if all universities that
adopt mandatory policies on Open Access would register them
immediately upon adoption in the ROARMAP database
(
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/).
Being able to see the details of existing policies helps other
institutions that are developing their own and means that new
policies are included in summary data like this chart
(
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090603/full/news.2009.538/box/1.html
) at the soonest possible moment.
Alma Swan
Key Perspectives Ltd
Truro, UK
On 03/06/2009 13:28, "Stevan Harnad" <amsciforum_at_GMAIL.COM> wrote:
The United Kingdom continues to lead the world in Open
Access:
University College London (UCL) <
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/>
has just adopted the UK's 22nd (and the world's 84th<
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/fullinfo.php?inst=University
%20College%20London%20%28UCL%29> ) mandate to make all of
its research output Open Access (by depositing it in
UCL's Institutional Repository, UCL Eprints
<
http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/> ).
With its 13 funder mandates and 9
institutional/departmental mandates
<
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/> so
far, the UK still has the planet's highest proportion of
Open Access Mandates.
But the world is catching up (see Figure
<
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Temp/alma-mand1.png>
)!
Dr. Alma Swan of Key Perspectives
<
http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/> and University of
Southampton, has just documented how mandates
<
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/> to
provide Open Access to research output have almost
doubled globally in the year that has elapsed since
Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted
the world's 44th Open Access mandate<
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/fullinfo.php?inst=Harvard%20
University%3A%20Faculty%20of%20Arts%20and%20Sciences> in
May 2008.
The world's first Open Access mandate<
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/fullinfo.php?inst=University
%20of%20Southampton%3A%20School%20of%20Electronics%20and%20Computer%20Scienc
e> was adopted in 2002 by the University of
Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science
(ECS). Southampton had previously designed, in 2000
<
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october00/10inbrief.html#HARNAD>
, the first free, Open Source software for creating Open
Access Institutional Repositories, Eprints
<
http://www.eprints.org/> , now used the world over<
http://roar.eprints.org/?action=home&q=&country=&version=eprints2&type=&ord
er=name&submit=Filter> .
In 2004 the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Science
and Technology (as urged by evidence
<
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Temp/UKSTC.htm>
provided by Southampton University and Loughborough
University) recommended<
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399
03.htm> "that all UK higher education institutions
establish institutional repositories on which their
published output can be stored and from which it can be
read, free of charge, online [and] that Research Councils
and other Government funders mandate their funded
researchers to deposit a copy of all of their articles in
this way." Research Councils UK
<
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/outputs/access/default.htm>
went on in 2006-2008 to make a clean sweep, with all
seven councils mandating Open Access in 2006-2008.
But Alma Swan's analysis shows that the UK is at last
going to lose its lead, as the global growth spurt of
mandates we had all been awaiting appears to have begun.
The globalization of Open Access mandates is of course
something that all UK universities heartily welcome as a
win/win outcome, optimal and inevitable for research and
researchers worldwide. Open access is essentially
reciprocal. The only way every university on the planet
can gain open access to the research output of every
other university on the planet is by each providing open
access to its own research output: "Self-archive unto
others as you would have them self-archive unto you<
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&num=100&q=%28%22self-archive+un
to+others%22++OR++%22golden+rule%22%29+%22open+access%22+harnad&btnG=Search&
aq=f&oq=&aqi=> ."
Received on Thu Jun 04 2009 - 13:36:15 BST
