Self-archiving or third-party archiving? (RE: Authors and OA)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Authors need be asked only to do the research, publish it in a
> peer-reviewed journal (as always) and, now, to also provide OA to it --
> either by publishing it in an OA journal (5%) or by self-archiving it 
> (95%). Leave the archiving to the universities and their network of 
> OAI-compliant OA archives.

[MOD. OBSERVATION:  Stevan seems all along to have used "self-archiving"  
in a broad sense, i.e., it's authors' posting to either own sites or
eprint sites or repositories, i.e., sending to any e-source other than the
journal in which the article is published.  Consistent even if a little
confusing at times!]

Now I'm really confused, but it may be that I'm fundamentally
misunderstanding something about the self-archiving concept.  Do you mean
that authors should leave it to the universities to do the self-archiving
for them?  It seems to me that it's either self-archiving (and therefore
the author's responsibility) or it's third-party archiving (and therefore
the responsibility of someone other than the author).

To say that authors need only do the research and write it up and then
leave the self-archiving for someone else to do for them strikes me as a
contradiction in terms.  If we're really talking about self-archiving,
then "all they need to do is provide OA to it" is a statement that, I
think, blithely covers up a world of cost and complexity.  Providing OA is
not simply a matter of flicking a switch or granting permission.  It's a
matter of publishing, and publishing in a particularly costly and robust
manner (given that OA implies access that is both universal and permanent,
neither of which characteristics has much precedent in the history of
publishing).  To pretend that this would not constitute a significant
burden for authors is, I think, unrealistic.  Unless, again, the burden is
being placed on someone else, in which case I don't see why it's called
self-archiving.

Rick Anderson
rickand@unr.edu