This is a very important discussion. The Canadian federal government has agreed to an open access requirement for its health research funding:
"CIHR will require its researchers to ensure that their original research articles are freely available online within six months of publication" http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34851.html It's a start. Isn't there something similar already in the US? How about other countries? Colin Colin Prince 416-978-7636 Scholarly Communication Initiatives University of Toronto Libraries Anon. (Bob O'Hara) wrote: > Jane Shevtsov wrote: >> The physical sciences seem to be halfway there with arXiv.org . >> >> Jane >> >> On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 3:22 PM, joseph gathman <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Jane wrote: >>> >>>> The journal's contribution is coordinating peer review, formatting the >>>> paper and, most importantly, disseminating the paper. >>>> >>> It seems we are approaching the time when journals become obsolete >>> for these functions. We could do all this through the internet right >>> now. Imagine just posting your paper here on ECOLOG-L, where anybody >>> can review it and comment publicly. It would make for more dynamic >>> review and discussion of research. >>> >>> So now it seems the main function of journals is to make the >>> publication "official" so it will count toward retention and tenure >>> and other professional tally counting. >>> >>> > > There is Nature Precedings (http://precedings.nature.com/) which allows > you to do just this. > > Bob >
