...an institutional repository (IR) should NOT be a glorified...bibliographic/abstract index! ...when i hop along to any one of the e-prints- or dspace-based collections, i...EXPECT scholarly works there to be available fulltext, and openly so. this is my understanding of the use of these brands.
my little rant is due to my minutes-ago experience of browsing a collection..., only to find that what was listed in the law collection of the IR were merely mostly abstracts linked to alternative locations (toll-gated journal publication sites)....no reasons were given on the IR page for their not simply providing the fulltext in situ....
universities and research institutes: you shouldn't get to call your collection an e-prints or dspace collection if all you´re doing is providing a service which is in effect an online catalogue with links to a closed-access collection. for sure, this "catalogue" gives exposure to the authors' works somehow (via this online abstract) and yet, let's face it, you can't pretend that it's open access. this kind of misuse dilutes the notion of open access and distorts the originally intended uses of the e-prints and dspace softwares.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/18/2007 01:48:00 PM.
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.
