Re: Copyright retention is not a prerequisite for self-archiving

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

If you are put off by the endless jeremiads of your weary archivangelist
http://poynder.blogspot.com/2007/07/oa-interviews-stevan-harnad.html
then please do listen to the gentler, ecumenical voice of the
Prophet Peter!
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_08_fosblogarchive.html#2479603730002848815

Here is Peter Suber's comment in Open Access News on University of Illinois
Provost Linda Katehi's letter to UI faculty:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/archives/2007/07/provost_letter.html
encouraging them to use the CIC author addendum [on retaining copyright]
as recommended by the CIC Statement on Publishing Agreements and an Addendum
to Publication Agreements for CIC Authors.
http://www.iun.edu/~facorg/meeting07/U10-2007.pdf

     Peter's Comment.
     "The U of I is right to encourage faculty to use the CIC author addendum.

     "But in the June SOAN,
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/06-02-07.htm#balancing
     I hoped that CIC institutions would go further:

     "...[I]t's not clear what form the encouragement will take.  Will it
     be limited to the abstract encouragement of passing a resolution
     in the Faculty Senate?  Or will there also be some case-by-case
     encouragement?  ...In a standoff between a publisher and faculty
     member, what will universities do to support their faculty member?

     "Here's the bigger question:  What else will these universities do to
     encourage OA archiving?  If they take the step of adopting an author
     addendum, they should also adopt a policy to require OA archiving.
     If permission is not a problem (because publishers already give it
     or because an addendum worked), what will these institutions do to
     insure that faculty postprints are actually archived? ...

     "The permission problem is worth solving, but we have to remember that
     solving it is only a means to the end of OA.  Universities adopting
     an author addendum are moving in the right direction, but they must
     keep moving.  Permission for OA isn't yet OA itself...."

     Peter Suber, OA News
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_08_fosblogarchive.html#2479603730002848815

Now, for the historically minded, here are some of the unminded 
jeremiads on this very point from the American Scientist Open 
Access Forum, starting as early as 1998, to the effect that while 
copyright retention is desirable, it is not a prerequisite for OA 
or OA self-archiving, and hence that university self-archiving 
policy should *not* be contingent on retaining copyright. It is 
much harder to get authors to agree to and comply with a mandate 
to retain copyright (because it [appears to] put their choice of 
journal at risk) than it is to get authors to agree to and comply 
with a mandate to deposit their accepted final drafts in their 
institutional repositories (the ID/OA) mandate. 
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html 
Therefore the weaker mandate should be adopted first, rather than 
the stronger one. (Copyright retention can wait: OA should not.)

Here are some prior AmSci Forum threads on this topic:

     "Copyright retention is not a prerequisite for self-archiving"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5195.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5604.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2556.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0079.html

     "What Provosts Need to Mandate"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3241.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5626.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2550.html

     "Optimizing MIT's Open Access Policy"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5244.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/6475.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4483.html

     "Cornell's Copyright Advice: Guide for the Perplexed Self-Archiver"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5664.html

     "How to Word Institutional Self-Archiving Policy"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4542.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3812.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2889.html
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0732.html

     "US University OA Resolutions Omit Most Important Component"
     http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/4516.html

Stevan Harnad