Lila Guterman, 2 Open-Access Advocates Step Down From Their Posts, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'Richard K. Johnson, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, said he would resign on July 1, to consult part time and take time off. The coalition, known as SPARC, is an alliance of libraries that works to cut costs in scientific communication. Mr. Johnson has spoken forcefully about the crisis libraries face as journal prices have gone up, and has worked to promote free, online access to scientific journals. "We've accomplished something very important with the emergence of open access as a public-policy issue," he says. "I'd like to step away from it when I think we are at a high point." He will be replaced by Heather Joseph, who is president and chief operating officer of BioOne, an aggregation of biological research journals that are available free online. SPARC helps run BioOne. "Rick has built an incredibly strong program and an incredibly important and ambitious agenda," says Ms. Joseph. "I'm hopeful we can work towards collaborative solutions of lowering barriers to access." A day earlier, BioMed Central announced that Jan Velterop, its director and publisher, would be stepping down to work as an advocate for open access. BioMed Central is the largest open-access publisher, with more than 100 journals. Mr. Velterop told The Chronicle that he preferred to work on thinking about the movement's future, on spreading it to more publishers and scientific societies, and on helping the ones that might struggle to develop a business model. Mr. Velterop has not set a departure date. His duties will be taken over by two current BioMed Central employees, Matthew Cockerill, who has been named director of operations, and Anne Greenwood, who has become managing director. Mr. Cockerill says he looks forward to continuing to expand BioMed Central. Now that the business is running smoothly, he says, "we're reaching the end of the beginning." '
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/02/2005 03:14:00 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.
