At the ELPUB conference in June I saw a demonstration of the
Microsoft "upload" function. This will be a free plug-in to allow
researchers to seamlessly deposit into as many open access
repositories as they desire, using SWORD. This is not meant as a
plug for Microsoft, as no doubt there will soon be many flavours of
SWORD; this is just one illustration of how SWORD will soon make it
very, very easy for researchers to deposit their own work for open
access.
So if publishers do not wish to take on the function of loading
articles into open access repositories, this is a short-term problem.
In the longer term, this could be more of a problem for the
publishers themselves. That is, once researchers are not only doing
the writing and peer reviewing the work of others, but also
completing and disseminating themselves the version that is most
accessible and hence most likely to be read, they might begin to
wonder what is that publishers do, exactly. This would be a fine
thing for scholarship, in my opinion.
Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, and
does not represent the opinion or policy of BC Electronic Library
Network or Simon Fraser University Library.
Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
Received on Tue Jun 30 2009 - 23:25:19 BST