Re: European Research Council Mandate

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008, Sandy Thatcher wrote:

> One would think, then, that the language of the ERC statement could have been
> more precise: "peer-reviewed publications" is a general term that normally
> would be thought, in an academic context, to include all types of
> publications.

Yes, all Green OA self-archiving mandates should specify that they
apply to articles published in peer-reviewed journals and peer-reviewed
congress proceedings, to be clear that they do not apply to books. But
academics know this. Books are vetted for publishability, but they are
not peer-reviewed. In an academic CV, one does not list one's books under
"peer-reviewed publications."

Stevan Harnad

> Sandy Thatcher
>
>> No, neither the ERC Green OA Self-Archiving Mandate nor the NIH Green OA
>> Self-Archiving Mandate applies to books. (Nor do the RCUK mandates, nor the
>> university and departmental mandates, nor any of the 35 mandates adopted
>> and the 8 proposed worldwide so
>> far:http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php.) They all apply only to
>> peer-reviewed journal-articles.
>>
>> Book self-archiving cannot and should not be mandated, for the contrary of
>> much the same reasons peer-reviewed journal articles can and should be.
>>
>> Stevan Harnad
>>
>> On 16-Jan-08, at 7:20 PM, Sandy Thatcher wrote:
>>
>>> Does this apply to all "publications," including books? If so,one
>>> wonders how authors of these books will find any publishersfor
>>> them. I certainly wouldn't invest our press's money in publishing a
>>> book that became available for free after six months from another
>>> source. And I would worry a great deal ifagencies like the NEH made
>>> this a condition for all projects it funds in the humanities, both
>>> books and journals. A six-month embargo might work for science; I
>>> think it will destroy publishing in the humanities.
>>>
>>> Sandy Thatcher
>>> Penn State University Press
>
>