Donald MacLeod, Academics thrash out open access details, The Guardian, March 2, 2005. Excerpt: 'International open access to research papers on the internet has taken a crucial step closer after a meeting at Southampton University this week, supporters have said. A gathering of 60 academics, publishers and university librarians this week thrashed out practical steps to promote open access - something backed last year by the Commons science and technology committee but so far rejected by the UK government after strenuous lobbying by publishers....Stevan Harnad, a professor of cognitive science at Southampton and a leading advocate of open access, believes that universities have found a way around previous objections by encouraging academics to self-archive their research papers in repositories at their own universities. These papers would then be accessible by anyone via the internet, providing the author agrees....The Southampton meeting was called to put flesh on the bones of the Berlin declaration. Speaking after the meeting, Professor Harnad said it was the "optimal and inevitable solution". He added: "Everybody will benefit from it - researchers will be able to access what they could not before and the impact of their research will go up. At last those who agree open access is a good thing know how to provide it."'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/02/2005 08:13:00 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.
