Talking to our faculty about open access

and authors’ rights

Joyner Library ForumOctober 23, 2008

Open access ultimately meansFree Web access to full texts of all 2.5 million articles published annually in the 24,000 peer-reviewed research journals across all scholarly and scientific disciplines.

(Stevan Harnad, “Zeno’s Paralysis,”

2006)

Two trends converge at open access:The Web -- access to the scholarly research literature is now (theoretically) possible for all

Rising research journal prices -- making research less accessible

Open access means:

Research is free to the reader

… but open access is not

without $$$ costs

Open access has given rise to self-archiving:

in subject repositories like arXiv (physics) and Citeseer (computer

science)

in institutional repositories

Where we fit in: Faculty researcher as searcher

Faculty researcher as author

Arthur Sale, “The Two Hats” (2006)

Ideally we are advocating for open access……But when that isn’t working, educating is the fall-back position

Be aware….. that issues surrounding open access crystallize for different people at different times.

Keep in mind……..

The penetration of open access publishing varies somewhat by discipline.

Concerns commonly expressed about self-archiving:Stevan Harnad, “32 Worries” (http:/www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32-worries)

PermissionHow can I possibly self-archive? It’s illegal!Many journals now allow self-archiving (SHERPA-RoMEO)

Items can be removed from repositories in the very rare instances where removal is requested

Peer reviewHow can I possibly self-archive? What about peer-review?

Open access self-archiving is the self-archiving of peer-reviewed journal

articles before (preprint) and after (postprint) peer review

It’s a supplement to – not a substitute for – publishing in a peer-reviewed journal

PrestigeHow can I possibly self-archive?It lacks the prestige of publication!

The self-archived version simply provides supplementary access to a published, peer-reviewed journal article

Prestige comes from having met the standards of the journal

PromotionHow can I possibly self-archive?It won’t count for my performance review!

Self-archiving is NOT self-publishingIt’s the peer-reviewed, published

journal article that counts for the performance review

Self-archiving also increases impact, which does count in performance reviews

PriorityHow can I possibly self-archive?I may lose priority for my work!

Publicly self-archiving a date-stamped preprint online is the best way to establish priority even before publishing

Plagiarism/PoachingHow can I possibly self-archive?My work could get plagiarized!

Plagiarism of online, open-access text is easier to detect and document

The only surefire way to be completely safe from plagiarism is not to publish or make your work accessible to anyone

Privacy/PatentsHow can I possibly self-archive? My ideas could be stolen!

Patentable ideas are essentially secrets

The only surefire way to keep a secret is not to publish or make it public

Secrets are not appropriate for self-archiving

Pretty-sittingWhy should I self-archive? I already have all the access I need!

Author self-archiving increases impact and can enhance the reputation of the institution

There is still the problem of searcher/users at other, less-well-endowed institutions

PapyrophiliaWhy should I self-archive?It’s print on paper we need!

Viewpoint is somewhat discipline-specific

Don’t minimize this viewpoint when faculty express it

Do remind that the peer-review and quality of journal is the issue

Print limits access

Publishing’s futureWon’t self-archiving will put publishers out of business?Subscription-based journal publishing and author self-archiving can co-exist peacefully

Institutions’ subscription savings may offset OA costs

SCOAP

PerspirationHow can I possibly self-archive?It’s too complicated and time-consuming and I already have enough to do.

Success of IRs come from a mandate (institutional or funding agency) or…

Sustained, focused effort on -- usually the library’s -- part

What’s in our toolkit?SHERPA RoMEO (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/)SPARC author’s addendum

(http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/addendum.shtml)Our Institutional RepositoryOur library’s web pageOur Collections Dept.Other?

Thanks for participating in today’s forum!