Last year (December 19, 2003) Science Magazinelisted open access among the "breakthroughs of the year" and "areas to watch in 2004". The article is accessible only to subscribers but see this OA summary. This year (December 17, 2004), editor Donald Kennedy assessed the Science predictions from last year: "We like our call on soil microbiology, and biodefense research did well, as predicted. But the controversy over open-access publishing resisted a clear resolution; and science and security, far from progressing significantly, remains a mess." This year's article too is accessible only to subscribers. (PS: If a "clear resolution" requires the disappearance of critics, then it's true that we haven't gotten that far. But then neither has Darwinism. Yet clearly 2004 was a year of stunning progress for OA. I'll have more to say about this in the January issue of SOAN.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/17/2004 03:15:00 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.
