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News from the open access movement


Monday, January 09, 2006

French anthology on OA archiving

Christine Aubry and Joanna Janik (eds.), Les Archives Ouvertes : enjeux et pratiques. Guide à l’usage des professionnels de l’information, Ouvrages ADBS, 2005 (332 pages - ISBN 2-84365-079-8). An anthology of essays on OA archiving. See the table of contents.

Also see Yves Desrichard's review of the book, Les archives ouvertes : enjeux et pratiques, Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, 50, 6 (2005). Stevan Harnad has translated this excerpt of the review into English:

The chief merit of this work is its survey of the basic principles of this "Open Access" of which "open archives" are but one component. In this regard it is not to slight the other contributors to note that, if one could read but one single article, it would have to be that of Helen Bosc, of the National Institute of Research in Agronomy in Tours. With her "Open Archives: A Fifteen-Year History", she provides, not of a mere a constipated chronology, but a veritable "Survival Manual" for the librarian or documentalist wishing either to get involved in projects based on these concepts or merely to keep informed.

Hélène Bosc has self-archived her essay, Archives Ouvertes : quinze ans d'histoire. Here's the English edition of her abstract:

Both the idea and the benefits of providing Open Access to scientific publications are now coming to be understood by a growing number of researchers who publish in new open access journals. However, the potential of the complementary strategy of self-archiving in Open Archives -- which could provide immediate open access to all scientific articles -- remains still under-utilized. This chapter describes the various attempts in the last fifteen years to generalize the self-archiving practice first adopted by physicists, who have been providing open access to their work since 1991. The benefit of self-archiving and open archives are explained . The adoption of the practice of self-archiving by researchers and their institutions is still too slow. The reasons for this delay are discussed. The official policies adopted by various institutions following the Berlin 3 meeting in Southampton (U.K.) now makes more likely that the practice of self-archiving will spread considerably in 2005. The open access thereby provided will increase the scientific impact of research worldwide.

Jean-Michel Salaün has also self-archived his essay, Libre accès aux ressources scientifiques et place des bibliothèques. Here's the English-language abstract:

Free access to scientific resources and the role of libraries In the field of scientific publishing, the movement for open archives has led to changes which the author of the article analyses from four points of view. The first highlights the relationship between libraries and publishing and its destabilisation due to digitization. A more historical approach identifies the contribution of three parallel movements: the development of the web, the saturation of the publishing industry and international scientific politics. An approach per discipline gives an overview of ongoing evolution. Finally an economic approach puts the accent on added value from the various players, its remuneration and the limits of the consideration afforded to available documents.