Scientists running the ATLAS Experiment at CERN have released a Statement on Open Access Publishing. (Thanks to Jens Vigen.) Here's the statement in its entirety (not yet online):
The following statement was unanimously approved by the ATLAS Collaboration Board Friday 23rd February, 2007:
We the ATLAS Collaboration strongly encourage the usage of electronic publishing methods for ATLAS publications and support the principles of Open Access Publishing, which includes granting free access of our ATLAS publications to all. Furthermore, we encourage all ATLAS members to publish papers in easily accessible journals, following the principles of the Open Access Paradigm.
Here's some background on the experiment from its web site:
ATLAS is a particle physics experiment that will explore the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. The ATLAS detector will search for new discoveries in the head on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences. There are 1800 physicists (Including 400 students) participating from more than 150 universities and laboratories in 35 countries....
Comment. Some groups use the term "open access publishing" as a synonym for "open access". But in this case I believe the authors are using the term carefully to refer to OA journals or gold OA. CERN already has a green OA mandate, and the ATLAS experimenters know that it applies to them. In this statement, they are going beyond it to show their support for gold OA.
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.
