Re: Central vs. Distributed Archives

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 22:08:17 +0000

The two items that follow below are by Vinod Scario from Peter Suber's
Open Access News http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html

It provides an interesting and inspiring example of the power
and value of OAI-interoperability http://www.openarchives.org/
and the interdependence of the two open-access strategies (open-access
self-archiving and open-access journal publishing) that this new online
open-access journal, produced in India, is being made accessible
by archiving it http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/archives.html
in a specially created sector of CogPrints in the UK,
http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/view/subjects/JOURNALS.html
a multidisciplinary central archive created in 1997 for author
self-archiving (which is now being done more via distributed institutional
eprint archives -- to which the CogPrints software was adapted by Rob
Tansley, creator of eprints http://software.eprints.org/#ep2 and then
of dspace http://www.dspace.org/ -- rather than via central ones like
CogPrints). Yet there is no reason a central archive like CogPrints (or,
for that matter, any of the distributed institutional archives) cannot
provide a locus for open-access journals too! OAI-interoperability
means that they will all be picked up and integrated by cross-archive
harvesters like OOAster! http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/

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1. The Editorial of the Inaugural issue of Calicut Medical
Journal- Online, open access journals: the only hope for the future
http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/2003;1(1)e1.htm discusses in detail how
and why Calicut Medical Journal supports the Open Access initiatives.In
his editorial, Dr Ramachandran, stresses the need to disseminate knowledge
in the widest possible sphere, and especially between scholars of other
developing countries and asserts that Open Access is the best possible
solution to achieve this goal.The Editorial also criticises the widely
publicised " author pays" model as "discouraging" for scholars from
developing world and states it would badly affect the already low level
of publications from these countries. It also discusses the various
advantages of being Online and Open. He also asserts the need for more
regional Open Access Journals to meet the specific demands of scholars
and clinicians and for the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of
health services.The editorial concludes with the statement that Calicut
Medical Journal would play a dual role - being International by being
online ,Open and upholding the highest standards of publication,and at
the same time catering to the needs of Indian Scholars and Clinicians.
Posted by Vinod Scaria at 12:27 PM.


2. The Calicut Medical Journal is Online http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/
The much awaited Calicut Medical Journal is Online. The new Open Access
BioMedical Journal published by the Calicut Medical College Alumni
Association, is the second Indian Open Access BioMedical Journal. With
new Open Access medical Journals coming up in India, existing publishers
are already feeling the heat of competetion . While these two Open
Access Journals offer online acceptance of manuscripts, speedy peer
review and almost instant publication, with a host of utilities, and
ofcourse without a pricetag, other publishers are still in dark with their
outdated modes of peer review and publication. The web statistics of these
Journals are telltele signs of the fact that Open Access Publications
are widely embraced. Being Open Access, these Journals also aim to have
an International impact, which was hitherto virtually impossible in the
conventional publishing model.
Posted by Vinod Scaria at 12:22 PM.
Received on Tue Oct 28 2003 - 22:08:17 GMT

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