Comments on: When Free Access to Research Is Mandated by Law http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/ Canada's online legal magazine Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:12:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jean-Claude Guédon http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/comment-page-1/#comment-276160 Jean-Claude Guédon Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:51:39 +0000 http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/#comment-276160 Excellent summary of the whole situation, John. Like you, I believe we are approaching a tipping point. Now, what is needed is a series of incentives that will reinforce the mandate and will help wrestle the capacity to define quality or even excellence through repositories. OA journals that do not ask upfront payments from someone, be it an author or, more commonly a proxy for the author(s), actually behave like subject repositories with a peer-review system and the capacity to monitor their impact. The equation can be turned around ans lead to repositories building to the level where they too apply some degree of peer-review and metrics measurements. This will require better networking among groups of repositories, but this is not beyond reach. Then, the gold and the green road will not only converge, but will also reinforce each other. Excellent summary of the whole situation, John. Like you, I believe we are approaching a tipping point. Now, what is needed is a series of incentives that will reinforce the mandate and will help wrestle the capacity to define quality or even excellence through repositories. OA journals that do not ask upfront payments from someone, be it an author or, more commonly a proxy for the author(s), actually behave like subject repositories with a peer-review system and the capacity to monitor their impact. The equation can be turned around ans lead to repositories building to the level where they too apply some degree of peer-review and metrics measurements. This will require better networking among groups of repositories, but this is not beyond reach. Then, the gold and the green road will not only converge, but will also reinforce each other.

]]> By: Patrick Welch http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/comment-page-1/#comment-250367 Patrick Welch Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:02:49 +0000 http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/#comment-250367 Excellent article John, your quality summary of the open access issue and the benefits associated with it will help in spreading awareness and advocating freedom and open-access - both at my institution (University of Regina) and across North American institutions. I might advise stating point (A) a little stronger. Even though you do mention the increased citation rate of open-access articles, perhaps including an example from one of the studies (such as the percent increase in citation rate for open access articles as opposed to a non-open equivalent) will help grab the attention of the open-access-agnostic and pique their interest. Excellent article John, your quality summary of the open access issue and the benefits associated with it will help in spreading awareness and advocating freedom and open-access – both at my institution (University of Regina) and across North American institutions.

I might advise stating point (A) a little stronger. Even though you do mention the increased citation rate of open-access articles, perhaps including an example from one of the studies (such as the percent increase in citation rate for open access articles as opposed to a non-open equivalent) will help grab the attention of the open-access-agnostic and pique their interest.

]]> By: Jean-Claude Bradley http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/comment-page-1/#comment-250084 Jean-Claude Bradley Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:37:20 +0000 http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/#comment-250084 Thanks for the link to UsefulChem. The table of contents of all experiments is now available at: <a href="http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/All+Reactions" rel="nofollow">http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/All+Reactions</a> Thanks for the link to UsefulChem. The table of contents of all experiments is now available at:
http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/All+Reactions

]]> By: Stevan Harnad http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/comment-page-1/#comment-250074 Stevan Harnad Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:25:43 +0000 http://www.slaw.ca/2008/01/14/when-free-access-to-research-is-mandated-by-law/#comment-250074 <strong>Open Source Softwares for Creating Open Access Repositories</strong> Just want to point out that DSpace is not the only free Open Access Institutional Repository-creating software! There is also Southampton's <a href="http://www.eprints.org/" rel="nofollow">EPrints</a>, the very first of the free OA softwares, and also the one from which MIT's DSpace itself was derived (by the same Southampton University PhD, <a href="http://www.apsr.edu.au/Open_Repositories_2006/speakers.htm" rel="nofollow">Rob Tansley</a>). Likewise used worldwide, EPrints is (in my opinion) the free OA software that is the most powerful and best adapted for the continuously evolving developments of OA (lately not just mandates, but also research impact metrics). <strong><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/" rel="nofollow"> Stevan Harnad</a></strong> Open Source Softwares for Creating Open Access Repositories

Just want to point out that DSpace is not the only free Open Access Institutional Repository-creating software! There is also Southampton's EPrints, the very first of the free OA softwares, and also the one from which MIT's DSpace itself was derived (by the same Southampton University PhD, Rob Tansley). Likewise used worldwide, EPrints is (in my opinion) the free OA software that is the most powerful and best adapted for the continuously evolving developments of OA (lately not just mandates, but also research impact metrics).

Stevan Harnad

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