On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Thomas J. Walker wrote: > > >sh> The market can then decide whether authors think this is worth the > > >sh> price -- as long as they are allowed the self-archiving option, hence > > >sh> the choice... > > ESA requires authors to sign a copyright release that has > no provision for self-archiving. > > members of all the remaining scientific societies that > publish journals should see to it that their societies adopt these two > policies: > > 1. Authors are specifically permitted to self-archive their own versions of > the paper-archived version of their articles. > > 2. Authors are permitted to buy, at a fair price, immediate free Web access > to their articles. > > The first is important because it will demonstrate that the society is not > trying to control the distribution of content. > > The second is important because it offers a market-driven, nondisruptive > transition to free Web access to all journal articles.
Thomas, maybe it's just me, but I still can't determine from the above: Does or does not ESA allow author self-archiving (of their own final, accepted draft), without having to pay ESA anything extra? If it does, then this is a true, benign option, and the most progressive one I've seen to date, completely in harmony with the mission of a learned society and the possibilities opened up by the new medium. Sorry to keep asking you to spell it out, but "no provision" still sounds abmbiguous to me... Stevan
