Day 2...introduced three new drivers of change: open access, web 2.0 and new technology, and changes in scholarly communications. If one topic was guaranteed to spark debate it was open access, and various papers on or around the topic generated some lively discussion on both sides of the argument: publishers - from Graham Taylor on Day 1 onwards seemed nervous, and a little bit defensive, about the idea while other speakers saw it as a natural progression in scholarly publishing. It seemed to me that if institutional repositories began setting in place mechanisms for peer review and generating journals from the repositories another step might have been made... and indeed there is work being done on OVERLAY journals....
Michael Jubb highlighted the gap between discovery and access (particularly the 'subscription barrier') and welcomed the CIBER/Centre for Publishing e-Book Observatory which through Deep Log Analysis enhanced by qualitative research would help funding bodies and others to understand the research process.
I think it was Michael who also made the point that there is nothing new about open access - authors have always forwarded offprints of articles!
The afternoon panel began with four papers: Martin Richardson of OUP asked where are mainstream journal publishers with new models? He was followed by Leo Walford, Sage Publishing, who talked about making journals more accessible. Matthew Cockerill of BioMed Central looked at new, emerging, and potential models....
After a short question and answer session with the afternoon's panel - including a request for a Medium Deal instead of a Big Deal for journals - the librarians in the audience did not agree with Graham Taylor's opening remarks that the Big Deal was working! Also the comment that there was no need for journal articles to look like the print model - why don't they (and e-books) make more use of the electronic environment to enhance the content? ...
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/02/2007 01:07:00 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.
