Re: Authors and OA (RE: Mandating OA around the corner)

["Fytton Rowland" <J.F.Rowland@lboro.ac.uk>]

Two points.

First, the use of the term "Harnardian OA" is inappropriate.  Stevan
Harnad has always emphasised the need for proper refereed journals to
continue, while their output ("postprints") is archived by authors for
access free of charge, so there is no conflict between his position and
authors' desire to be published in high-quality journals.  Some of us may
doubt whether that model could survive economically in the long term, but
let's not misrepresent Stevan's position.

Second, all of the practical difficulties for authors that Rick mentions
are fully recognised by those who are advocating instituional
repositories, and they are being addressed in detail in various current
projects.  One of these has just been completed for JISC, by a group
co-ordinated by me, and I am also preparing an article for Serials Review
about it (presumably for the same special issue)!  It is acknowledged that
populating the repositories is a key problem, which will only be solved by
making it very easy for authors to submit their papers to them.  That will
be each individual university's job, though in the case of the UK, JISC
may be able to smooth the way.

Fytton Rowland, Loughborough University, UK.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:36 PM
Subject: Authors and OA (RE: Mandating OA around the corner)

>> The real problem with Harnadian OA (author self-archiving, for example)
>> is that it doesn't work *for authors.* This is the key point.  It is
>> authors who have a huge stake in the status quo, as the journals they 
>> publish in are the means of determining professional advancement.
>
> Joe raises an essential issue here.  For what it's worth, I'm working on a
> piece right now for Serials Review that discusses this point -- that it's
> one thing to come up with an OA model that pleases publishers, librarians
> and the general public, and quite another to come up with a model that
> will actually attract authors.

[snip]

> Rick Anderson
> Univ. of Nevada, Reno Libraries