I completely agree with my old comrade-at-arms Eric van de Velde
(below) that one, short, simple, doable message is needed.
BOAI 10, Enabling Open Scholarship and the SPARC
OA Policy group are each working on providing such
a message. (BOAI's will be released shortly by Peter Suber).
The messages are still being crafted, but I certainly know
what I think the message ought to be:
--------
Research Funders and Institutions:
1. Open Access (OA) maximizes research usage, impact and
progress.
http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html
2. Mandate (i.e., require) that all researchers provide OA
by self-archiving the final, refereed draft of all
peer-reviewed journal articles in your institutional
repository.
http://roarmap.eprints.org/
3. Free software is available to create an institutional
repository if you don't yet have one.
http://roar.eprints.org/
4. The optimal OA mandate is called ID/OA,
with deposit designated as the sole mechanism for
submitting publications for institutional performance review.
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/737-.html
Do the above, and do not complicate with any of the
following for the time being. They will all happen naturally
of their own accord once ID/OA mandates prevail globally:
X1. "Gold" OA Journal Publishing
X2. Libre OA re-use rights
X3. Copyright reform
X4. Open Data
X5. Publishing reform
X6. Peer review reform
X7. Digital preservation
X8. etc.
--------
We have not yet reached the fabled (and many times prematurely
announced) "tipping point" for OA. Eric, despite heroic efforts, did
not succeed in persuading CalTech to adopt an OA mandate
hence his worries about whether it is possible at all:
It *is* possible. ROARMAP contains examples of successful, sustainable
OA mandates. See especially Southampton ECS, Liege, QUT and Minho.
The secret is to keep it simple, forget about X1-X8 for now, and to keep
trying.
As more OA mandates are adopted (with the help of policy guidance for
Enabling Open Scholarship, BOAI 10, SPARC OA Policy and -- let's hope
-- the adoption of FRPAA), the mandate momentum will accelerate, gloablly
and irreversibly.
Just keep it simple (ID/OA) and don't over-reach!
Stevan Harnad
On 2012-04-30, at 6:22 PM, Eric F. Van de Velde wrote:
> Stevan and others:
> This is also a response to the long thread on "Open Access Priorities: Peer
> Access and Public Access". I am responding in this thread as it includes the
> issue of "OA Pragmatics".
>
> Over the years, you and others on this list have amassed a wealth of analysis
> and data that favors OA. In the process, you and most of us have our favored
> OA mechanisms and policies. And GOAL provides spirited debates on every OA
> detail there is.
>
> Yet, detail is not what is needed. We need a clear and simple message that is
> capable of inducing many independent strong-willed individuals to change
> behavior. Most of these individuals are part of old institutions with
> long-ingrained traditions. Changing their behavior is a political problem,
> not one of analytics.
>
> The target group for the OA campaign consists of PhDs, and we tend to think
> that they are best approached with analysis. That is true, but for most OA is
> at most a peripheral issue on which they do not wish to spend a lot of time.
> The Harvard memo is an example of a complicated political message: it does
> not say to do one thing, it says to consider doing five or six things if the
> opportunity should so arise. Your list of priorities is clearer, but it is
> long and (politically) complicated.
>
> Policies (like mandates) are difficult to maintain over many years. In year
> one, there may be a motivated university president/chancellor/provost/... to
> serve as enforcer, but by year 2, 3, 4, or 5, this person moves on, and the
> mandate-exception list grows, partially erasing any OA gains. Because of the
> distributed nature of all of the research institutions, this is asynchronous
> process. Today, it is Harvard that is interested in OA and the journal
> crisis. Tomorrow, it will be other major institutions. Yet, many of the
> proposed OA policies will only be effective if implemented at a significant
> fraction of institutions simultaneously.
>
> Although starting an institutional repository is now easy from a technical
> point of view, it still generates a mountain of meetings, discussions, etc.
> Many initiatives die a slow death or are kept barely alive because of such
> implementation and political delays.
>
> What we need is one focused message that can be used by a
> president/chancellor/provost/... who is aware of the OA value proposition and
> wants to do something something about it now. These leaders exist, but they
> cannot afford to spend three years fighting the fight only to have it
> reversed after they leave. A few may be willing to fight six months, perhaps
> even a year, if they can put in place an irreversible policy to lead their
> institution to OA.
> --Eric.
>
> http://scitechsociety.blogspot.com
>
> Google Voice: (626) 898-5415
> Telephone: (626) 376-5415
> Skype chat, voice, or web-video: efvandevelde
> E-mail: eric.f.vandevelde at gmail.com
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 5:29 AM, Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> On 2012-04-29, at 3:52 AM, Jan Velterop wrote:
>
> > By all means where there are opportunities to promote mandates
> > let us do that, but not at the expense of making the moral and
> > societal responsibility case for OA.
>
> By all means where there are opportunities to make the moral and
> societal responsibility case for OA let us do that, but not at the expense
> of promoting mandates.
>
> Researchers themselves are the only ones who can provide
> OA, and their institutions and funders (not "dinner parties or the pub")
> are the only ones can mandate that they do it -- not for ideological
> reasons, but out of practical self-interest.
>
> And, to repeat: OA means public access too.
>
> Stevan Harnad
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