I wish to make clear that my message below is merely to encourage the
registration of policies in ROARMAP, giving an adoption date if
possible if this differs from the announcement date. When I used the
ROARMAP data to draw up the graphs that were published last week I
used the adoption date wherever it was available rather than the
announcement date, because the former indicates the time when the
decision was made even if implementation came later.
There was not the slightest, tiniest, minutest whiff of criticism
intended in the words I used, but it has been pointed out that that
they can be read that way. UCL's mandate is a big, big prize and
congratulations to all involved.
Alma Swan
Key Perspectives Ltd
Truro, UK
On 04/06/2009 12:25, "Alma Swan" <a.swan_at_TALK21.COM> wrote:
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 - 17:06:54 BST
