Closed is Not Necessarily the Opposite of Open: Open Access Initiatives Paul Jaeger (moderator), Ann Bartow, Brian Crawford, Heather Joseph, Denise Troll Covey
This session was remarkably hostile, and unfortunately given the complexity of the topic, did little to clarify the issue at hand: Open Access and its potential for radical (and in my opinion, greatly needed) change in the scholarly communications arena. While I don't claim to be an OA expert, I do feel that I have a solid understanding of the principles and issues, and this session made me anxious and frustrated as I realized that people without my background were undoubtedly more confused afterward than before we even began. Despite Heather Joseph's "modern interpretive copyright dance", the session was truly characterized by the following phrases (supplied by panelists, not audience): "pit bull", "fired up", drank a bottle of Tabasco". Nevertheless, there were good points made, which I share below.
faculty are more concerned with what their peers are doing with OA journals, not about the dysfunction in scholarly communications or serials pricing
if everyone waits to see what their peers do (chicken & egg issue), then nothing will change!
to get faculty to go green, must understand current culture in order to change it
advancement & stature in field are key issues for faculty, not public access; faculty don't understand that there is an access issue...until you cancel journals
if ILL changes to strict document delivery (current section 108 review) then faculty will likely become interested in publicly accessible materials
lobby for OA resolution to be adopted by Faculty Senate
publishing agreements are contracts, and contracts are negotiable
what is in it for individual researchers? what are the carrots?
only through use of research findings by others is research impact maximized
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/23/2007 01:20:00 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.
