Judith Wilkerson, Head of Serials Services at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, has publicly released her letter to the NIH in support of its draft OA plan. Excerpt: 'Intellectual property rights need to be retained by the author. However, usage permissions need to be sufficient to allow the content to be used by others, as long as the author gets credit for the work. Publishers only need distribution permissions (not exclusive). In much of the public discussion the term "open access" is being re-defined as "free to read on the web" and that is neither adequate nor accurate....NLM should not wait on the publisher to release an article to public access. Release should be an NIH policy decision, not a publisher decision....It is a public policy mistake to delay access to the public that paid for research and the US research community, especially if content is released immediately to third world countries that could be our enemies. It is not is the best interest of the country or its citizens. Nor is it fair.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/11/2004 09:52:00 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.
