Editor’s note: A small group of individuals with expertise on author-rights policies, the campus policy environment, National Institutes of Health (NIH) deposit processes, and digital repository services met in Washington DC on January 9, 2009, under the auspices of ARL’s Public Policy and Scholarly Communication programs. The group explored opportunities, desired outcomes, and policy issues involved in developing capabilities for institutionally mediated deposit processes and content transfer between institution-based and funder-based repositories, particularly PubMed Central. Based on that discussion, the group also identified potential strategies that would lead toward creating the needed rights-management environment and repository services. This essay reflects the January 9 discussions....
Actions to Pursue
Having looked at key questions and fostered agreement among the January meeting participants, several potential action arenas emerge:
1. Exchange of content between different repositories is a needed capability for research institutions,...For example, one step toward expanding locally based repository services is to harvest content as it is deposited in a disciplinary repository....It is already feasible for an institutionally based repository program to start harvesting PubMed Central content that is coded as fully open access. NLM staff at the meeting expressed interest in working on such a project with a small group of libraries.
2....[T]here is a need for a “universal addendum” for author-publisher agreements that facilitates the grant of a limited license to an author’s funding organization and affiliated institution....
Another way to advance toward the desired copyright-sharing environment would be for libraries to engage in conversations with publishers about appropriate rights-management practices on behalf of the authors at their institution. One avenue where this could occur is through negotiations libraries engage in with publishers to license journal products.3 Particularly with large publishers, including discussion of rights assignments for works authored by affiliates of the licensing institution could be an efficient approach....
ARL will be working with member libraries on how best to move closer to the ideal repository environment, one that effectively incorporates the requirements of research funders as well as the interests of research institutions.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/21/2009 11:21:00 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.
