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Is rational discussion of open access possible? Cover

Is rational discussion of open access possible?

By: Rick Anderson  
Open Access
|Jul 2014

References

  1. 1. Bosch S Henderson K, Steps Down the Evolutionary Road: Periodicals Price Survey 2014, Library Journal, 2014, 139(7), 3237.
  2. 2. Suber P, A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access: http://legacy.earlham.edu/∼peters/fos/brief.htm (accessed 18 April 2014).
  3. 3. Young P, The Serials Crisis and Open Access: A White Paper for the Virginia Tech Commission on Research. Study on behalf of Virginia Polytechnic and State University, 2009, Blacksburg, Virginia Tech.
  4. 4. Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition: http://sparc.arl.org/issues/open-access (accessed 18 April 2014).
  5. 5. Jisc: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/opentechnologies/openaccess/green-gold.aspx (accessed 18 April 2014).
  6. 6. Scholarly Open Access: Critical Analysis of Scholarly Open Access Publishing: http://scholarlyoa.com (accessed 18 April 2014).
  7. 7. Anderson R, 13 February 2014, Errors and Misinformation in the ROARMAP Open Access Registry, Scholarly Kitchen blog: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2014/02/13/errors-and-misinformation-in-the-roarmap-open-access-registry/ (accessed 18 April 2014).
  8. 8. Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies: http://roarmap.eprints.org (accessed 18 April 2014).
  9. 9. Harnad S, 15 February 2014, More Skulduggery from the Scholarly Scullery, Open Access Archivangelism blog: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1098-More-Skulduggery-from-SSPs-Scholarly-Scullery.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
  10. 10. MELIBEA: http://www.accesoabierto.net/politicas/?idioma=en (accessed 18 April 2014).
  11. 11. 22 July 2013, American Historical Association Statement on Policies Regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations, AHA Today blog: http://j.mp/19dV15h (accessed 18 April 2014).
  12. 12. Booth M (MalBooth, “More from the dumb as a box of hair department: Why I Embargoed My Dissertation zite.to/1aJOZak via @zite #ahagate.” 24 July 2013, 9:31 p.m. Tweet.
  13. 13. Fister B, 24 July 2013, The AHA Asks “What about the Children?,” Library Babel Fish blog: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/aha-asks-what-about-children#sthash.uA1BGgZu.dpbs (accessed 18 April 2014).
  14. 14. Sarnacki B, 26 July 2013, The Ivoriest Tower, untitled blog: http://www.briansarnacki.com/the-ivoriest-tower/ (accessed 18 April 2014).
  15. 15. Bohannon J, Who's Afraid of Peer Review?, Science, 2013, 342(6154), 6065.
  16. 16. See, for example: 3 October 2013, Which Is It?, Gavia Libraria blog: http://gavialib.com/2013/10/which-is-it/ (accessed 18 April 2014); Taylor M, 7 October 2013, Anti-tutorial: How to Design and Execute a Really Bad Study, Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week blog: http://svpow.com/2013/10/07/anti-tutorial-how-to-design-and-execute-a-really-bad-study/ (accessed 18 April 2014); Brembs B, How Embarrassing was the ‘Journal Sting’ for Science Magazine?, björn.brembs.blog: http://bjoern.brembs.net/2013/10/how-embarrassing-was-the-journal-sting-for-science-magazine/ (accessed 18 April 2013). Shortly after publication of Bohannon's study, it was widely reported that the Directory of Open Access Journals had responded with accusations of racism, though the link to which all of these reports refer (http://doaj.org/doaj?func=news&nId=315&uiLanguage=en) is now dead. In contrast to these reactions, prominent OA advocate Peter Suber's analysis, though critical on balance, struck me as admirably honest and even-handed: Suber P, New “Sting” of Weak Open-access Journals, Google+: https://plus.google.com/+PeterSuber/posts/CRHeCAtQqGq (accessed 18 April 2014).
  17. 17. Though widespread, this unwillingness is not universal. The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, for example, has acknowledged the problems raised by Bohannon's study and made a public commitment to tighten its membership criteria and exercise better oversight. (See OASPA's Second Statement Following the Article in Science Entitled “Who's Afraid of Peer Review?”, OASPA blog: http://oaspa.org/2013/11/ (acessed 18 April 2014). It has also been widely reported that hte Directory of Open Access Journals removed 114 or more journals from its list in light of Bohannon's findings, though the DOAJ's statement to that effect seems no longer to be available online.
  18. 18. Lewis D, The Inevitability of Open Access, College & Research Libraries, 73(5), 493506.
  19. 19. Curry S, 22 October 2012, The Inexorable Rise of Open Access Scientific Publishing, Occam's Corner blog: http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2012/oct/22/inexorable-rise-open-access-scientific-publishing (accessed 18 April 2014).
  20. 20. Morrison H, 11 December 2013, The Unstoppable Growth of High Quality Open Access Resources (December 2013 Early Year-end Edition of the Dramatic Growth of Open Access), The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics blog: http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-unstoppable-growth-of-high-quality.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
  21. 21. When reading the public pronouncements of some OA advocates, one is constantly reminded of the government radio announcements in George Orwell's 1984: “A news flash has this moment arrived from the Malabar front. Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory.”
  22. 22. Poynder R, 12 July 2013, Heather Joseph on the State of Open Access: Where Are We, and What Needs to Be Done?, Open and Shut? blog: http://poynder.blogspot.com/2013/07/heather-joseph-on-state-of-open-access.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
  23. 23. Poynder R, 19 June 2011, Open Access by Numbers, Open and Shut? blog: http://poynder.blogspot.com/2011/06/open-access-by-numbers.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
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  25. 25. This issue is discussed in some depth in a debate between the author of the present paper and Jean-Claude Guédon of the University of Montréal; transcripts of their statements and responses can be found at http://2013charlestonconference.sched.org/event/c9cf410d4aef11f6e305c8bbbbab713c#.U1AifNweEpo (accessed 18 April 2014).
  26. 26. Beall J, The Open-access Movement Is Not Really about Open Access, Triple-C, 11(2), 589597.
  27. 27. See, for example, the DC Principles Coalition's 20 February 2007 press release titled Nonprofit Publishers Oppose Government Mandates for Scholarly Publishing (http://www.dcprinciples.org/press/2.htm, accessed 18 April 2014), a joint letter to Congress from the Association of American Publishers and the DC Principles Coalition opposing the Federal Research Public Access Act (http://www.dcprinciples.org/news/FRPAA.pdf, accessed 18 April 2014), and Suber P, 5 February 2009, Copyright Alliance and AAP Welcome Re-introduction of Conyers Bill, Open Access News blog: http://legacy.earlham.edu/∼peters/fos/2009/02/copyright-alliance-and-aap-welcome-re.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
  28. 28. See, for example, the Association of American Publishers' statement on Open Access at http://www.publishers.org/issues/5/8/ and the DC Principles Coalition's statement at http://www.dcprinciples.org/statement.htm (both accessed 18 April 2014). While neither statement is explicitly anti-OA, in both cases the anti-OA message seems to me strongly implicit.
  29. 29. Harnad S, 16 September 2013, Is the Library Community Friend or Foe of OA?, Open Access Archivangelism blog: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1051-Is-the-Library-Community-Friend-or-Foe-of-OA.html (accessed 18 April 2014).
  30. 30. Association of American Universities: http://www.aau.edu/policy/scholarly_publishing_roundtable.aspx?id=6894 (accessed 18 April 2014).
  31. 31. Chi Y S, Comments of YS Chi to the “Scholarly Publishing Roundtable” delegates, undated: http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10054 (accessed 18 April 2014).
  32. 32. Patterson M, Statement from Mark Patterson: Why PLoS Has Not Signed the Report of the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable, undated: http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10050 (accessed 18 April 2014).
Language: English
Published on: Jul 7, 2014
Published by: UKSG
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2014 Rick Anderson, published by UKSG
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.