Re: National Online: Nature and Others... (like SCIENCE)

[kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de]

Rick wrote (with respect to Science Online)

> The fact that this level of service doesn't include extras
> (like pre-publication article access) is fine with us, as long as it
> includes the basics (like access to articles as soon as they're
> published). 

Sorry, but that's not true. It's not pre-publication access with Science.
ScienceExpress articles are considered published (and citable) as soon as
they are out in the online version. The rest is just cosmetics. You could
even say that the practice of Science is worse because it concerns
refereed primary research articles that immediately get cited while the
embargo of Nature affected "only" other material. And I can assure you
that libraries get routinely requests from users for that material or are
pressed to buy an article in advance. By the way, I bet that Nature will
soon follow the example of Science. It is already forseeable if you look
carefully at the language of their new site license for Nature.

But it doesn't really matter if publishers try to restrict this to
subscribers. Authors will care for themselves. It will be enough if
authors put their material on e-print servers (set up by university
libraries) as soon as they get it published (for Journals like Science or
Nature, where there is some "risk" involved) or even before that (for
other journals) - Harnads subversive proposal. The OAi (Open Archives
Initiative) standard is there, and it will be implemented on a broad scale
very soon (this summer there will be several implementation workshops in
Germany, for example). Publishers will not like it but scientists will
demand it. Science and Nature have so many added value features to offer
that I don't fear for their future. It does not have to be the bottle neck
of advance or delayed access which is not at all in the interest of the
authors.

I certainly agree with you that libraries can provide only as much as they
can within the constraints of their budget. But we will make our faculty
aware that it is their responsibility to make sure that the articles they
write get an exposure as widely as possible and we will do what is needed
to assist them in that.

Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Stuttgart University Library