More scholars are exploring forms of digital dissemination, including open access (OA) systems where content is made available free of charge. These include peer-reviewed e-journals as well as traditional journals that have an online presence. Besides SHA’s Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology, the American Journal of Archaeology now offers open access to downloadable articles from their printed issues. Similarly, Evolutionary Anthropology offers many full-text articles free for download. More archaeologists are also taking advantage of easy Web publication to post copies of their publications on personal websites....
Besides making distribution highly cost-effective, the Internet provides a powerful means for sharing large collections of rich media and complex data. These types of content are important components of both museum collections and excavation documentation. More efficient and comprehensive sharing of this complex, media rich content is an important goal for many seeking to reform and enhance scholarly communication....As demonstrated in ecology and other sciences, reused primary data can be an important resource for advances in understanding....
Other working systems are now coming online, including two related systems, the University of Chicago OCHRE project and Open Context. Both systems share the same data architecture described by the Archaeological Markup Language (ArchaeoML) and both have similar capabilities for integrating and pooling complex and media-rich archaeological documentation....While OCHRE provides sophisticated data management tools targeted for active research projects, Open Context...is aimed at streamlined, Web-based access and retrieval of excavation and collections-related content....Open Context enables researchers to publish their primary field data, notes, and media (images, maps, drawings, videos) on the World Wide Web....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/04/2007 01:11:00 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.
