On Wed, 12 Nov 2003, Philip Pecorino wrote:

> Here are some questions with which I need some assistance.
>
> What would it mean for a university or other academic institution to support
> or "endorse" Open Access?

It would mean that they either encourage or (better) mandate that all
research output must be made open-access, either by publishing it in an
open-access journal (if one of the 560 existing open-access journals is
suitable for that piece of research http://www.doaj.org/) or else by
publishing it in one of the remaining 23,440 toll-access journals AND
self-archiving it in the institutional eprint archives (or a suitable
central archive, if one exists).

For this, the institution should create institutional eprint archives (preferably
at the departmental level) and formalize the open-access provision strategy:

Free GNU software for creating OAI-compliant eprint archives:
http://software.eprints.org/

Model for an institutional or departmental open-access provision strategy:
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html

> What would it mean in theory and in practice?

Both in theory and in practise it means the above.

> Is there a model anywhere for such support or endorsement?

See the above model.
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#institution-facilitate-filling

And here is a list of 109 known institutional
eprint.org archives:
http://software.eprints.org/#ep2

Look especially at the bigger ones, like CalTech, Indiana, Australian National,
Lund, Trento, LMU-Muenchen, Melbourne, Queensland, Southampton, Virginia Tech,
Weizmann, CNRS, Nicod, Firenze, as they are the ones with the successful
archive-filling policies.

See also the 239 archives at OAIster (not all institutional)
http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
and the 127 archives at OAI (not all institutional)
http://oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu/Register/BrowseSites.pl

> What would the institution be committing to do? Minimally? Ideally?

Minimally?

    - Departmental archives and encouragement to fill them, along
    the lines of the Berlin Declaration. (But not likely to produce
    results.) http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/berlin.htm

Ideally?

    - a university-wide open-access provision
    policy for all peer-reviewed research output
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html

    - a standardized university online CV for research assessment:
    http://paracite.eprints.org/cgi-bin/rae_front.cgi

    - a university-library-based proxy self-archiving service,
    along the lines of the CalTech or the St. Andrews
    archives
    http://library.caltech.edu/digital/
    http://library.caltech.edu/evdv/CODA.ppt
    http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/proxy_archive.html

    - a parallel university data-archiving initiative
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/data-archiving.htm

    - a parallel university book-impact (metadata and bibliography)
    initiative http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/bookcite.htm

    - a programme of promoting, monitoring, measuring and demonstrating
    the maximization of university research impact by maximizing
    university research access
    http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/search
    http://citebase.eprints.org/analysis/correlation.php
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving.htm

> Would encouraging and providing for self archiving be only a start?

If successful, the institutional open access it provides with certainty
would be an end in itself, for the institution itself. The rest would
follow at a global cross-institutional level.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif
http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/harnad.html#B1

> Would it mean encouraging faculty who are editors or editorial board members
> to move the toll journals to an open access mode?

Not a bad idea, but not much an institution (or editors) can do there.
Editorial Boards have defected for lower-toll-access publishers, but asking them
to defect to open-access publishers might be asking for too much at this time.
Besides, it does not do much for the institution's own annual research output.

> Would it mean encouraging faculty to submit to open access journals?

Yes, where suitable ones exist.

> Only to open access journals?

Definitely not! Such an unrealistic recommendation at this time would be
a recipe for having the entire institutional open-access initiative fail,
and lose its credibility. There are 24,000 refereed journals today, and
fewer than 600 of them are open-access.

> What would it mean for its libraries?

Initially, little. Institutional open-access provision will not solve the
serials budget crisis. But it is an investment in an eventual solution -- and
meanwhile provides immediate open access, along with its benefits, in terms of
enhanced visibility and impact.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Tp/resolution.htm#4.1
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Tp/resolution.htm#4.2

> Thanks in advance to any who care to enlighten me.
>
> Philip A. Pecorino, Ph.D.
> Professor, Philosophy
> Queensborough Community College, CUNY

The enlightenment is hereby provided. The rest is in CUNY's hands.
Research funding agencies too can help:
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#research-funders-do
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/harnad/

Stevan Harnad

NOTE: Complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/september98-forum.html
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
    Posted discussion to: [log in to unmask]

Dual Open-Access Strategy:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/berlin.htm
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http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0024.gif
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