This discussion paper is commissioned by SURF, the Dutch higher education and research partnership organisation for network services and information and communications technology. It does not (necessarily) reflect the opinion of SURF regarding this issue. The sole aim of the author is to sharpen the arguments....The electronic era reshapes the whole academic landscape, research methods, information management and education alike....We have to avoid the standard mistake...of building clippers after its finally successful rival, the steamship, was engaging in transoceanic voyages. This short report aims to provide an analytical approach toward the issue of Institutional Repositories in order to clarify the multifaceted discussion and to serve as a kind of checklist in the process of decision making. The present discussion on Institutional Repositories is characterised by an unbalanced mixture of technology push, a discussion on the level of academic autarky and the debate on the role of (commercial) publishers. In this report, a more axiomatic approach is adopted in the hope that this will assist reaching a more transparent discussion of the aims and goals as well as the organisational and financial consequences....The Institutional Repository is more than a weapon in the battlefield of journal publishing....The essential discussion is to what extent the Institutional Repositories fulfills a service role in academic life. This role can only become successful if all academic stakeholders realise that a Repository is not a library in new cloth. The novel thing in the whole story is that a genuine academic Institutional Repository, which is transparently linked to others, creates a totally new platform for academic activities. By integrating all research and educational endeavours in one transparent digital infrastructure, the Institutional Repository becomes a research tool in itself....In academic life the Repository will soon play the role of the central metabolic organ for knowledge. In that sense it has to be rated on the same level as buildings, fresh air and water, all needed to sustain a healthy body.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/15/2005 12:13:00 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.
