SPARC Executive Director, Heather Joseph, has commented on the proposal by the DC Principles Coalition to modify the NIH public-access policy. Quoting her comment from Library Journal Academic Newswire for November 3:
SPARC executive Heather Joseph this week praised a linking plan by 57 nonprofit publishers, signatories of the DC principles for free access to research (see LJ Academic Newswire 11/1/05), saying it was an excellent plan on its merits--but not necessarily an alternative to the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) public access policy. "This
is the same proposal they made a year-and-half ago," Joseph told the LJ Academic Newswire. "It's a good plan, but it doesn't go the extra step we need it to go." That step, Joseph explained, is "access now and in perpetuity" for all publicly funded research.
"The problem with linking out from the PubMed site to publishers' sites is that is does not create a dependable repository. It depends on the largesse of publishers and, as well-intentioned as they are, there is no guarantee they will be there tomorrow," Joseph said.
(PS: The question is whether the publishers want NIH to link to articles at publisher web sites instead of, or in addition to, hosting its own free online copies in PMC.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/16/2005 08:29:00 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.
