The UK Committee Report on OA

[Stevan Harnad]

I am forwarding this because of
the general interest and implications of the UK report.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:01:34 +0100
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk>
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM at LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Re: Mandating OA around the corner?

[I have now seen the report, and the positive rumour indeed proved correct!]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39909.htm

**Written July 19, posted July 20 2004**

I am at the Barcelona 2004 Forum on the biology of conflict and cooperation
http://www.barcelona2004.org/eng/eventos/dialogos/ficha.cfm?IdEvento=164
so I have not seen the UK Select Committee Report (embargoed till
tomorrow, July 20, four hours from now).

But if the rumour is false that it will only recommend support for OA
publishing,

    "Re: UK Select Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publication"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3836.html

and the rumour is true that it will also recommend mandating
the self-archiving of all UK-funded research, then the outcome could
not have been better -- though it could have come 10 years earlier!

    "June 27 2004: The 1994 "Subversive Proposal" at 10"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3809.html
    http://www.arl.org/scomm/subversive/toc.html

Mandated self-archiving for UK-funded research output had
been precisely what our own written testimony (with Tony Hey,
Charles Oppenheim, and numerous other co-signatories) had
recommended:

    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/ukparl.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/ukparl.doc

And this UK recommendation would perfectly complement the steps NIH is
beginning to take in the same direction in the US:

    "Re: Mandating OA around the corner?"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3851.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3854.html

Now the recommendation needs only implementation:

    http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php

and then I *guarantee* that all the rest of the OA dominoes
will rapidly fall, worldwide.

Best wishes,

Stevan Harnad

UNIVERSITIES:
If you have adopted or plan to adopt an institutional policy of providing
Open Access to your own research article output, please describe your
policy at:
        http://www.eprints.org/signup/

UNIFIED DUAL OPEN-ACCESS-PROVISION POLICY:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
            http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
            http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml

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