Here's an additional opinion on the matter, and it is rather less
charitable:
http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2012/01/yhgtbfkm-ecological-society-of-america.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheTreeOfLife+%28The+Tree+of+Life%29
<http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2012/01/yhgtbfkm-ecological-society-of-america.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheTreeOfLife+%28The+Tree+of+Life%29>
The fact that ESA forces authors to cede the copyright to their work is
offensive, IMO, even if they 'grant' the author reprint or reproduction
rights. It also means that ESA could choose to rewrite their rules such
that authors could lose rights to reprint or reproduce their own work.
Academic publishers should be granted first printing rights, with the
option to acquire additional rights at a later date, as they desire.
Nothing more. As it currently stands, ESA's policy is essentially
treating research articles as work-made-for-hire, which is ludicrous,
given that authors must pay page charges to print the work! In essence
researchers are paying to have their work printed, while ceding all of
their rights to the publisher in the process.
Further, I don't think anyone is suggesting that ESA should be denied
all subscription fees (or page fees), but simply that papers should
become available publicly over time, and that any research funded by
public monies should be available to the public sooner rather than
later. Which is entirely reasonable, and more than likely beneficial to
the public.
-m
On 1/5/2012 12:33 AM, Jane Shevtsov wrote:
Fellow Ecologgers,
Have people read ESA's response to a proposed requirement that the results
of federally funded research be publicly available, possibly after an
embargo period? It's available here.
http://www.esa.org/pao/policyStatements/Letters/ESAResponsetoPublicAccessRFI2011.pdf
I have to say I find this response somewhat disappointing. While some of
the concerns raised in it are certainly valid, I believe it underestimates
ecologists' desire to read an interesting new paper now rather than later.
Also, kudos to ESA for allowing authors to freely post their papers online,
something I relied on when I didn't have university journal access, but how
is this financially different from open access? ESA's 2009 financial
statement (the latest available online) may be of interest.
http://www.esa.org/aboutesa/docs/FS2009.pdf
Thoughts?
Jane Shevtsov
--
Matt Patterson
MSES/MPA 2012
Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Center for the study of Institutions, Population and Environmental
Change (CIPEC)
Room 226A | 408 N Indiana Ave | Bloomington, IN 47408-3799
Environmentally Scientific Emblogulations
<http://env-sci-blog.blogspot.com>
