Email Eprint Request Button: Too good for OA's own good?

[Stevan Harnad <amsciforum@gmail.com>]

Forwarding the interesting post below from Colin Smith, who is 
wondering whether the semi-automatic "email eprint request" 
button

http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/274-guid.html

might tempt authors to deliberately make their deposits Closed 
Access instead of Open Access so that can they get more detailed 
usage metrics for their papers, for research assessment purposes!

The possibility was raised, when the button was first designed, 
that authors could get addicted to the richer vanity metrics that 
Closed Access plus the button provides. http://bit.ly/9ThxNu

But if you go to Colin's blog to see the responses from IR 
managers that have since implemented the button, you will find 
that that is not what tends to happen. Rather, authors tire of 
vanity metrics after a while and instead prefer sparing 
themselves those extra keystrokes by re-setting their papers as 
Open Access.

It might, though, be useful to implement a "button" for Open 
Access papers too, allowing users to identify themselves and 
their interests to the author, if they wish... -- SH

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: C.J.Smith <c.j.smith@open.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Subject: Is the "request copy" button good for OA?
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@listserver.sigmaxi.org

Members of this list may be interested in a blog post I've just 
written on the 'request copy' button used by some repositories 
(including my own). I'd welcome your responses not only on this 
list, but also as comments to the blog post itself.

http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/ORO/?p=92

Colin Smith
Research Repository Manager
Open Research Online (ORO)
Open University Library
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
Email: c.j.smith@open.ac.uk
Web: http://oro.open.ac.uk