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

Rick Anderson wrote:
By asking authors not only to do original
research and write their papers but also to put them in a functional
(maybe even attractive, and definitely ADA-compliant) online format, to
maintain them in a universally-accessible online space, to be responsible for the maintenance of the necessary hardware and to keep the software up-to-date, to administer durable links, to carry the articles with them as they move from institution to institution (or provide for a permanent home someplace else) --
[snip]

I agree, this is not the author's job. The only thing the author should
have to do is to provide a copy of the final, formatted, printable version
of the article, which is what the publisher (whether OA or not) should be
providing, to their institutional repository. Many universities have yet
to develop plans for their IR, of course, but this is merely a matter of
time. OA is only one of the reasons why universities will need to create
some kind of IR. (One other reason, as an example: stable homes will be
needed for a wide variety of e-only information produced by universities. The e-world will need its archives, just as the print world does).

In an electronic OA world, it won't be that hard at all for authors to
keep a collected version of their own works, perhaps both on their own
publicly available web sites (not exactly rare nowadays), and on a DVD or
CD as well, for safekeeping. This requires a little bit of technical
skill, but probably no more than looking after your photography
collection, and much less than figuring out how to program that video or
DVD machine... There are reasons for doing this that are to the author's
advantage, for example being able to supply a CV complete with
publications, not just a reference list. For many of us, it's also much
easier to point someone to your work when it's on your web site, than it
is to remember where you put that paper copy, copy it, send it, etc. Faster, too.

As for moving towards ADA compliance, this is an issue for traditional as well as OA publishing, as well as for producers of search services. Once again, we're mixing up (conflating) OA with a completely separate issue.

cheers,

Heather G. Morrison
Project Coordinator
BC Electronic Library Network
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: 604-268-7001
Fax: 604-291-3023
Email: heatherm@eln.bc.ca
Web: http://www.eln.bc.ca