...Have you wondered why some of your publications did not show up in [Google's] search results?
Have you ever tried to access one of your own journal articles online, only to be asked to pay $30 (USD) by the publisher?
Why are the articles by some of your colleagues freely available online in full text even though they were also originally published in commercial journals? Is this permissible? ...
Why is your institution’s library paying millions of dollars each year for journal subscriptions and yet you are still unable to access some of the journals you need for your research?
Why do we give away our work and contribute free labour to refereeing for journals that put restrictions and price barriers on access?
Should copyright laws designed to protect the entertainment industry govern the way researchers share and exchange ideas and how they make use of their work for teaching?
Do you know what an institutional repository is and whether your university has one?
What could universities do to give the public a better understanding of their mission?
Should funding agencies require that publications resulting from their support be made publicly available?
If we were to reinvent the scholarly communication system, would we still have restricted access?
The common link between these seemingly disparate questions is Open Access (OA), or the free online access to scholarly publications, particularly those that are the result of public funding....
The common misapprehension that engaging in either the Green or Gold Road is detrimental to one’s career will linger unless there are clear signals from administrations that Open Access is to be celebrated, not shunned. Debates about the merits and means of archiving Open Access have already made an impact on how publishers behave, and while scholars and librarians initially drove Open Access from the bottom up, recent funding policies on research access have begun to provide a framework from the top. But university administrations represent the key bridge between policy from the top and initiatives from the bottom. The current policy vacuum in the middle is the primary cause of continued uncertainty and inaction on the part of faculty members....
Open Access is about more than just the future of journals or books, but the future of scholarly communication....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/14/2009 12:56:00 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.
