Emerald has launched Emerald Asset (Accessible Scholarship Shared in an Electronic Environment), an unusual no-fee hybrid program for its engineering journals. From the site:
As a publisher of a range of high profile engineering journals, Emerald is piloting a new Open Access (OA) publishing model, for a trial period, via the Emerald Engineering web portal.
Unlike other OA models which require authors to pay a fee to have their article openly published, the Emerald Asset trial offers authors the opportunity to contribute, not in cash but in kind: In exchange for open publication authors will be asked to submit a summary of their research findings highlighting their practical application.
Summaries will be considered for publication on the Emerald Engineering website. Each summary will include a link to enable readers to gain free access to the full text of the published article.
Additionally, outlines of the summaries will feature in our bi-monthly Emerald Engineering e-newsletter which will be distributed free of charge to all website registrants and further serve to increase awareness of each featured author's work....
How to take part: Authors can simply contact the Editors of journals they have published in, while readers should look out for the Asset logo. Any queries can be directed to Nancy Rolph.
[Quoting Roderick (Roddy) MacLeod, Senior Subject Librarian, Heriot-Watt University:] "The new Emerald Asset trial is a significant step forward in increasing the accessibility of peer reviewed journal articles in the engineering sector. It will be welcomed by authors who wish to actively contribute to the wider promotion of their own work without incurring traditional OA author fees...."
Comments.
I like the way Emerald has traded fees for something else of value: a second submission emphasizing the practical applications of the first. The result is a lower hurdle for authors and more useful content for readers. The announcement doesn't say whether participating authors can retain key rights, use CC licenses, or deposit copies in repositories independent of the publisher. Nor does it say whether the free online articles will be accessible to readers who aren't clicking from one of the summary pages.
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.
