Comments on: On ALA, CLA, and Open Access http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2008/06/11/on-ala-cla-and-open-access/ What Is the Sound of One E-Print Downloading? Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:47:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Charles Bailey http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2008/06/11/on-ala-cla-and-open-access/comment-page-1/#comment-278500 Charles Bailey Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:40:25 +0000 http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/?p=1247#comment-278500 My posting about ALA points out that, although it and some of its divisions have issued statements in support of open access, I cannot definitively identify a single major open access journal that it publishes. Moreover, while it appears that ALA's two copyright statements are options for authors of all ALA's major journals, this is not clear from the copyright statements on several of these journals. Consequently, it is not possible to say that ALA fully supports self-archiving. If it does not publish open access journals and it does not fully support self-archiving, it would appear that ALA is verbally supporting open access, but not practicing it. It is up to ALA to decide if it wants to support open access to its journals and how it should fund it if it does (in FY 2007, ALA's total revenues were $52 million dollars); however, its credibility as an advocate for open access is undermined if it does not. It may be the case that ALA supports self-archiving, but not open access journals. If so, a clarification of its position and better wording on its ambiguous journal sites would clear this up, and no one could say that ALA was not "walking the talk." ALA's major journals publish a fairly low volume of papers on an annual basis. If I were to offer ALA advice, it would be this: stop printing issues, stop offering subscriptions, stop marketing journals, stop restricting access, utilize the open-source Open Journal Systems software to publish PDF versions of articles, and announce new issues on appropriate mailing lists. In short, cut out the overhead involved with publishing dual print/electronic journals on a commercial basis and focus fiscal resources on editing, digital infrastructure, and digital production. CLA appears to be very close to offering full open access it its journal; only the current issue appears to be restricted.; however, if this is so, it is not consistent with its statement, which strongly supports open access journals. Again, it's a question of credibility, although a much smaller question than ALA's. It is up to CLA to decide if it wants to support open access to its journals and how it should fund it if it does. If I were to offer advice, it would be the same as to ALA. My posting about ASIST dealt solely with its self-archiving policy. I have not investigated whether ASIST has issued statements in support of open access; however, it is not a member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access or the Open Access Working Group, and I'm unaware of it issuing any statement on support of OA. My posting about ALA points out that, although it and some of its divisions have issued statements in support of open access, I cannot definitively identify a single major open access journal that it publishes. Moreover, while it appears that ALA’s two copyright statements are options for authors of all ALA’s major journals, this is not clear from the copyright statements on several of these journals. Consequently, it is not possible to say that ALA fully supports self-archiving.

If it does not publish open access journals and it does not fully support self-archiving, it would appear that ALA is verbally supporting open access, but not practicing it. It is up to ALA to decide if it wants to support open access to its journals and how it should fund it if it does (in FY 2007, ALA’s total revenues were $52 million dollars); however, its credibility as an advocate for open access is undermined if it does not. It may be the case that ALA supports self-archiving, but not open access journals. If so, a clarification of its position and better wording on its ambiguous journal sites would clear this up, and no one could say that ALA was not “walking the talk.”

ALA’s major journals publish a fairly low volume of papers on an annual basis. If I were to offer ALA advice, it would be this: stop printing issues, stop offering subscriptions, stop marketing journals, stop restricting access, utilize the open-source Open Journal Systems software to publish PDF versions of articles, and announce new issues on appropriate mailing lists. In short, cut out the overhead involved with publishing dual print/electronic journals on a commercial basis and focus fiscal resources on editing, digital infrastructure, and digital production.

CLA appears to be very close to offering full open access it its journal; only the current issue appears to be restricted.; however, if this is so, it is not consistent with its statement, which strongly supports open access journals. Again, it’s a question of credibility, although a much smaller question than ALA’s. It is up to CLA to decide if it wants to support open access to its journals and how it should fund it if it does. If I were to offer advice, it would be the same as to ALA.

My posting about ASIST dealt solely with its self-archiving policy. I have not investigated whether ASIST has issued statements in support of open access; however, it is not a member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access or the Open Access Working Group, and I’m unaware of it issuing any statement on support of OA.

]]> By: David King http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2008/06/11/on-ala-cla-and-open-access/comment-page-1/#comment-264096 David King Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:22:40 +0000 http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/?p=1247#comment-264096 What percentage of articles published in the journals of ALA, CLA, ASIST, etc, do you think are publicly-funded? Even were legislation to expand the scope of open access to include all articles derived from publicly-funded research, do you think the journals of professional societies in the field of library and information science would be affected? And, since authors in these journals are unlikely to have federal grants that they can use to pay for publication of their papers, the journals would not be able to turn to the author-financed model of publishing. So, what financial model do you recommend for the journals published by these professional societies? Raise dues of the membership? The membership already receives the publications as a benefit of membership. They are already paying once for the publication. Would you have them pay additionally to underwrite access by non-members? I'm not suggesting the open access ideal is unachievable. I'm curious what you see as the solution for the journals of professional societies like our own. What percentage of articles published in the journals of ALA, CLA, ASIST, etc, do you think are publicly-funded? Even were legislation to expand the scope of open access to include all articles derived from publicly-funded research, do you think the journals of professional societies in the field of library and information science would be affected? And, since authors in these journals are unlikely to have federal grants that they can use to pay for publication of their papers, the journals would not be able to turn to the author-financed model of publishing. So, what financial model do you recommend for the journals published by these professional societies? Raise dues of the membership? The membership already receives the publications as a benefit of membership. They are already paying once for the publication. Would you have them pay additionally to underwrite access by non-members? I’m not suggesting the open access ideal is unachievable. I’m curious what you see as the solution for the journals of professional societies like our own.

]]> By: Bailey No. 72 « Een beetje adjunct http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2008/06/11/on-ala-cla-and-open-access/comment-page-1/#comment-252983 Bailey No. 72 « Een beetje adjunct Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:06:43 +0000 http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/?p=1247#comment-252983 [...] tijd kritisch de Amerikaanse ALA, die enerzijds zich sterk maakt voor Open Access, maar anderzijds volgens Bailey haar eigen tijdschriften allesbehalve open access [...] [...] tijd kritisch de Amerikaanse ALA, die enerzijds zich sterk maakt voor Open Access, maar anderzijds volgens Bailey haar eigen tijdschriften allesbehalve open access [...]

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