SPARC and PLoS, two of the largest and most effective open-access advocacy organizations, have entered a partnership. Excerpt from the SPARC press release: "The alliance aims to broaden support for open-access publishing among researchers, funding agencies, societies, libraries, and academic institutions through cooperative educational and advocacy activities....'Both PLoS and SPARC recognize that open access speeds the progress of science and medicine, which is of substantial public benefit,' said Vivian Siegel, Executive Director of PLoS. 'Working together, we hope to demonstrate these benefits to scholarly publishing stakeholders on campuses, in the lab, and at funding agencies. SPARC members can make open access a reality by educating faculty about the benefits and future of open access within their campus community and at conferences they attend.'...'PLoS is a breakthrough initiative,' said SPARC Director Rick Johnson. 'It has brought enhanced credibility and a new public platform to open access publishing. PLoS has shown that if stakeholders want open access badly enough, old habits and systems can give way to new opportunities. SPARC looks forward to working with PLoS toward realignment of the way we pay for scholarly communication so that the public benefits of open access can be broadly realized.'"
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/10/2003 10:38:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
