On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, J.F.B.Rowland wrote:
> Let me clarify my position. I am partisan *for* OA repositories, I fully
> support the RCUK statement and the leading academics' open letter...
> ...Stevan says "Why plan for a transition to something that may not happen?"
> Answer: managements are supposed to plan for contingencies that may adversely
> effect their organisations' business!
I didn't say let's not plan (for whatever). I said let's not defer
or derail (or use "planning" as a pretext for deferring) the already
too long-deferred RCUK policy, slated for adoption end-August and
implementation in October.
And I am a partisan of learned societies too: But not when they try
to delay, defer or derail the optimal and inevitable for research and
researchers.
Our Open Letter closed with:
"For this reason, we believe that RCUK should go ahead and implement
its immediate-self-archiving mandate, without further delay. That
done, RCUK can meet with ALPSP and other interested parties to discuss
and *plan* [emphasis added] how the UK Institutional Repositories
can collaborate with journals and their publishers in sharing the
newfound benefits of maximising UK research access and impact."
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/18-guid.html
Stevan Harnad
Received on Wed Aug 24 2005 - 10:28:19 BST