Re: JSTOR Announces Free Early Journal Content

[Laval Hunsucker <amoinsde@yahoo.com>]

If one indeed thinks that this is a shame, and that the bulk [or 
all!] of such material could (or should) be made available to 
anyone, then one could look, for an enlightened example of just 
such an approach, to Persee 
(http://www.persee.fr/web/guest/home).

That system gives on its "presentation" page, incidentally, the 
following mission statement (I quote the English version here):

The main goal of the Persee project is to widely disseminate the 
scientific output of French language specialists in the 
humanities on the internet. Considered part of France's heritage, 
the collections are at the disposal of all, without charge, in an 
optic of free and non exclusive access and dissemination.

The publisher or journal distributor may choose to determine a 
recent time span, between 2 and 5 years, during which the issues 
will not be freely available on the internet. This moving barrier 
is a means for guaranteeing the commercialization of current 
production, whether in "paper" or electronic form.


Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen (Nederland)