Johns Hopkins University Press is revising its copyright policy to allow postprint archiving, with some confusing, arbitrary, and onerous restrictions. Clause 3 of the new policy gives permission in advance "to include the Article in your own personal or departmental database or on-line site". However, Clause 4 says that you may "include the Article in your institutional database provided the database does not directly compete with either the Johns Hopkins University Press or Project Muse, is non-commercial, is institution specific and not a repository that is disciplined based and/or accepts contributions from outside the institution" --and provided that you request permission in advance. (PS: Distinguishing a faculty member's web site on the institutional server from the faculty member's section within the institutional repository on the same server is already a tenuous and arbitrary distinction. This policy goes further and distinguishes the departmental repository from the overal institutional repository. Moreover, how will JH determine whether a given institutional repository "competes" with JHUP or Project Muse?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/15/2004 08:45:00 AM.
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.
