... The central logistical difficulty is the one-time nature of these [publishing agreement] negotiations. Once something is signed, that’s all she wrote—going back to renegotiate agreements is so expensive in time and hassle that it pretty much never happens. It is therefore crucially important to get this right the first time, the first time being the only. That’s a burden on all sides of the question.
(This doesn’t just hit publishers, either. I have had to regretfully turn down collections of student work for the repository because nobody considered at the time of authoring that students are copyright owners too, and we can’t just make free with their work without their permission.)
I don’t have a magic answer to this; I note that my own personal favorite word in a copyright agreement is “non-exclusive.” ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 6/11/2009 03:33:00 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.
