The Lancet 2004: design, contents, and access, The Lancet, July 3, 2004. An unsigned editorial introducing the journal's new look and new access policy. Because The Lancet is an Elsevier journal, it now permits postprint archiving. Excerpt: "The Lancet's editors now encourage authors to post electronic documents of their peer-reviewed and edited papers on personal websites and in institutional archive repositories. Authors do not need our permission to do so. All we ask is that they link their article to The Lancet, which will remain the secure site for the pdf version of their work. This change in policy has been described as a "breakthrough" by open-access advocates. While The Lancet remains a subscription (user-pays) journal, our enthusiastic support for institutional repositories, which can be linked and searched independently of the journal, means that in any ordinary meaning of the phrase, The Lancet's content is now openly and freely accessible. We hope authors will make use of this new facility for open access to their work." (Thanks to Matt Cockerill.)
PS: I've applauded the Elsevier postprint archiving policy and applaud it again as it applies to The Lancet. I've even called it a "breakthrough". However, this policy does not mean that Lancet articles are now OA. It means that Lancet articles can be OA if authors take advantage of this opportunity. Because authors didn't have advanced permission for postprint archiving before, this is a large step forward. But because authors have been slow to take advantage of existing archiving opportunities, and still need to be stirred to action, we still have a long way to go. Note to Lancet authors who want OA: The burden is now on you!)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/06/2004 03:19:00 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.
