Even as many society publishers are moving toward liberalizing the embargo period for research journals (i.e.; BMJ Publishing Group; American Diabetes Association), others are choosing to pull back and impose longer embargoes. Make no mistake, free at some point in time is better than never, but the longer the delay the less the gesture is worth, both in monetary and scientific terms.
Sadly, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has chosen to double the embargo period for the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 6 months to one year. I was unable to find an explanation of the rationale for the change at the society's website or on the journal website. On the plus side, the extension of the embargo period will be implemented gradually, through the end of the year, so no current, free access will be removed -- simply, no new issues will be freely accessible until early 2005.
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Fulltext v58+ (1998+) 1 year moving wall (was 6 months); Print ISSN: 0002-9637
Regrettably, the American Psychiatric Association, in doubling the embargo period from 1 year to 2 years, appears to have shown no compunction in withdrawing free issues to implement the new lag period. [My institution subscribes to AJP, so it is difficult for me to test this.]
American Journal of Psychiatry - Fulltext v154+ (1997+) 2 year moving wall (was 1 year); Print ISSN: 0002-953X | Online ISSN: 1535-7228
Posted by
George Porter at 6/23/2004 04:43:00 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.
