On 8-Dec-08, at 3:54 AM, Tracy Gardner wrote:
> I thought subscribers to this list would be interested in this
> announcement
> from the PLS and the Research Assessment Exercise.
This absurd deal is as foolish in 2008 as it was in 2006, when it was
first announced:
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/63-guid.html
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/131-guid.html
Now that 6 of the 7 UK Research Councils have mandated Open Access
Self-Archiving, this nonsense is well on the way to becoming
mercifully moot.
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/outputs/access/default.htm
Stevan Harnad
>
>
> ******
> With the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results imminent, the
> Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) has described its role in helping
> publishers simplify access to articles submitted for assessment by
> UK higher
> education institutions (HEIs).
>
> Facilitating the provision of online access to over 150,000 journal
> articles without authentication barriers or licence conditions was
> the
> challenge presented to the PLS during the planning stages of this
> years RAE.
>
> After discussions with the PLS, the recommended solution to the
> time-consuming, largely paper-based processes of the last assessment
> carried
> out in 2001 was for participating institutions to submit the Digital
> Object
> Identifier (DOIs) of selected journal articles to the RAE team. The
> RAE
> team would then create a database of DOIs and, using the CrossRef
> database,
> link through to the journal article on the publisher site. A specially
> created Athens account would take care of authentication and the whole
> process should save assessors and the RAE team a great deal of time
> and
> effort. It then fell to PLS, which represents publishers’ collective
> licensing interests, to broker a deal to allow fee-waivers and direct
> access to publisher content,and to co-ordinate the project on behalf
> of
> around 2000 publishers’.
>
> Alicia Wise, CEO PLS, says “It was a very interesting challenge and
> one that
> I knew the PLS could provide valuable input to. The sheer
> choreography of
> getting 100s of individual publishers to understand and agree to a
> single,
> fee-waived licence, for access to content for the purposes of the
> RAE was
> significant. It has been the most complex licence I have ever
> worked on and
> the most demanding from the point of view of co-ordinating the sheer
> number
> of participating publishers, trade associations and industry bodies
> that
> provided input to the project. I am very impressed with the way the
> publishing community responded to this challenge and proud that the
> PLS was
> instrumental in helping marry technological solutions and licensing
> considerations to help with this important exercise.”
>
> Ed Hughes, RAE Manager, said: ‘We would like to thank publishers for
> not
> only agreeing to a licence solution for the RAE, but also for
> allowing our
> expert review panels direct access to their content. We wanted to
> make it
> easier for submitting HEIs to provide material to the panel
> electronically
> and we needed to simplify access for our 1100 panel members. These
> arrangements have allowed us to accomplish the RAE in a more
> efficient way,
> and has eased the burden on both submitting institutions and
> panels. I’m
> delighted that publishers and HEFCE were able to collaborate
> effectively on
> this vital project.’
>
> About the Research Assessment Exercise
> The Research Assessment Exercise is conducted jointly by the Higher
> Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding
> Council
> (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and the
> Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DEL).
> The primary purpose of the RAE 2008 is to produce quality profiles
> for each
> submission of research activity made by institution. The four higher
> education funding bodies intend to use the quality profiles to
> determine
> their grant for research to the institution which they fund with
> effect from
> 2009-10 - over £1.5 billion per year will be allocated for research
> using
> the results of the 2008 RAE. Any higher education institution in
> the UK
> that is eligible to receive research funding from one of these
> bodies is
> eligible to participate in the exercise.
>
> About the PLS
> The Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) is a non-profit organisation
> representing UK publishers on matters relating to collective
> copyright and
> collective licensing. PLS works with thousands of publishers
> operating with
> the trade associations for publishers’ rights. For more information
> visit
> www.pls.org.uk
>
> Contact Details:
>
> For more information please contact:
> Tracy Gardner
> Tel: 07884 438007
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
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