Dear Annemiek,
Thank for your press release. I have a two questions about what it
means:
> The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has
> reached agreement with Springer that in 2010 all articles by Dutch
> researchers in Springer journals will be made available Open Access,
> subject to the author agreeing. Other publishers too are providing
> opportunities for Open Access publication because they are following
> Springer in allowing researchers to arrange for Open Access when
> publishing their articles. Almost all publishers already allow
> researchers to upload the definitive author’s version of their
> article to their institution’s repository.
I wonder if you could explain what this means?
(1) Is it that VSNU has made a deal with Springer (paid, as U of C
did, or unpaid?) that articles by VSNU authors will be made OA?
(2) How will those articles be made OA?
I ask, because Springer is already completely Green on immediate,
unembargoed author OA self-archiving. In other words, VSNU authors are
all already free to deposit their refereed final drafts of their
Springer articles in their institutional repositories, without
requiring any further permission of payment.
http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers/74.html
Hence I am wondering what in addition is meant by (1)? That the
Springer PDF rather than the author's final draft can be deposited?
That Springer does the deposit on author's behalf? Or is this prepaid
hybrid Gold OA?
"University of California: Throwing Money At Gold OA Without Mandating
Green OA"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/546-guid.html
I ask, because in the case of Springer articles, it seems that what
the Netherlands lacked was not the right to make them OA, but the
mandate (from VSNU universities) to make them OA.
http://bit.ly/bRPDTG
> One problem for scientists and scholars is the need to publish in
> prestigious and expensive journals so as to receive a good rating,
> which is important when applying for grants from organisations such
> as the NWO. Prof. Engelen said that the NWO would investigate ways
> of ensuring that publications in Open Access would count more
> significantly towards the author’s ‘impact factor’.
Does this mean that Springer articles should now count more for NWO
than they do now? Why? Should it not be the quality standards of each
journal that determine how much it counts for NWO? (And also, of
course, the citation impact of each article itself.)
Is being OA supposed to make an article count more? Why? Especially
since making an article OA has already been shown to increase its
citation impact?
Is this not the usual error, of assuming that "OA" means "published in
a Gold OA journal" -- and assuming also that Gold OA journals are new
journals, and have to compete with established journals in order to
demonstrate their quality standards?
If so, why should any journal count more just because it is Gold OA?
And what about Green OA, which any Netherlands author can already
provide for their articles, and especially with Springer articles,
which already have Springer's endorsement for Green OA?
Green OA is already based on each journal's quality standards and
track-record. No special preferential treatment required.
> Paul Doop – a member of the board of Amsterdam University and
> Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and chair of the ICT and
> Research platform board of SURFfoundation – argued that the problem
> could be solved by including a provision for mandatory Open Access
> in collective labour agreements.
This is certainly one possible way to mandate OA. Or, better, each
VSNU university could simply adopt a policy, as over 100 universities
worldwide have already done, that requires the deposit of all
institutional refereed research output in the institution's repository.
But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the "problem" of making new
Gold OA journals "count" more than they have earned with their quality
standards, just as every other journal has done. Indeed, mandating
Green OA has nothing to do with Gold OA journals at all (except that
all Gold OA journals are also Green!)
> Many of those attending the seminar thought that was going too far.
> Prof. Engelen said, however, that his organisation was keeping close
> track of developments and that if insufficient progress had been
> made in a year’s time, the NWO would see whether it could make Open
> Access obligatory, as its sister organisations in the United Kingdom
> and the United States have already done.
This would be splendid. And I hope NWO will not wait so long to do
what the US and UK are already doing.
But it would be helpful if the very timely and commendable plan to
mandate Green OA in the Netherlands is not conflated with the
completely different question of paying for Gold OA, or with trying to
make Gold OA journal articles "count" more.
Stevan Harnad
On 4-Feb-10, at 9:33 AM, Kuil, van der Annemiek wrote:
>
> EUR 2.5m available for Open Access to research results
>
> Utrecht, 3 February 2010 – Open Access – meaning free access to
> scientific and scholarly information – is winning ground, and more
> and more information is becoming freely accessible to the public.
> The parties concerned – including publishers – are increasingly
> accepting Open Access as the norm. At the Open Access seminar
> organised by SURF in Amsterdam, Prof. Jos Engelen, chairman of the
> Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), announced
> that his organisation would be providing a special Open Access
> budget of EUR 2.5m.
>
> At the well-attended seminar – held to mark the conclusion of SURF’s
> ‘Open Access Year 2009’ – discussion focused on the issue of how we
> can speed up progress towards achieving the Open Access ideal. Much
> has already been achieved in the Netherlands. More than 200,000
> publications have now been made freely accessible via the NARCIS
> scientific portal. These will now be joined by publications by the
> lectors who organise knowledge networks at Dutch universities of
> applied sciences.
>
> Unanimity
> Leading figures from the world of higher education and research
> expressed unanimous support for the view that scientific and
> scholarly publications that have been financed by the taxpayer
> should be available online free of charge. Derk Haank, CEO of the
> Springer publishing group, went so far as to say that if scientific
> and scholarly publishing were to start again today, Open Access
> would be the logical route to pursue.
>
> Publishers
> The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has
> reached agreement with Springer that in 2010 all articles by Dutch
> researchers in Springer journals will be made available Open Access,
> subject to the author agreeing. Other publishers too are providing
> opportunities for Open Access publication because they are following
> Springer in allowing researchers to arrange for Open Access when
> publishing their articles. Almost all publishers already allow
> researchers to upload the definitive author’s version of their
> article to their institution’s repository.
>
> Problem
> One problem for scientists and scholars is the need to publish in
> prestigious and expensive journals so as to receive a good rating,
> which is important when applying for grants from organisations such
> as the NWO. Prof. Engelen said that the NWO would investigate ways
> of ensuring that publications in Open Access would count more
> significantly towards the author’s ‘impact factor’. Paul Doop – a
> member of the board of Amsterdam University and Amsterdam University
> of Applied Sciences, and chair of the ICT and Research platform
> board of SURFfoundation – argued that the problem could be solved by
> including a provision for mandatory Open Access in collective labour
> agreements. Many of those attending the seminar thought that was
> going too far. Prof. Engelen said, however, that his organisation
> was keeping close track of developments and that if insufficient
> progress had been made in a year’s time, the NWO would see whether
> it could make Open Access obligatory, as its sister organisations in
> the United Kingdom and the United States have already done.
>
>
> Links
> • Further information on the seminar and the video registration (in
> Dutch): www.surffoundation.nl/openaccess: Open Access seminar
> • NARCIS: www.narcis.nl
>
>
> ––––––––
>
> About SURF
> SURF unites the Dutch research universities, universities of applied
> sciences, and research institutions in creating pioneering ICT
> innovations, thereby enabling them to make the best possible use of
> the opportunities afforded by ICT and to excel in their education
> and research efforts. SURF consists of three organisations:
> SURFfoundation, SURFnet and SURFdiensten.
>
> <100203_press release_Dutch higher education sector convinced of
> need for Open Access2.doc><n100203_press r.txt>
Received on Thu Feb 04 2010 - 17:08:23 GMT