Stevan- > > If the Public Library of Science is dedicated to promoting OA for all > journal articles, and not just to promoting OA journal publishing for its > own articles, I hope that it will elect to use its vast subsidy to promote > the Unified Joint OA Provision Policy, rather than just promoting OAJ alone. >
There is a serious misconception underlying this statement, one that is all too often repeated by people quibbling about what PLoS is doing. It needs to be corrected. PLoS does not have a "vast subsidy". We have a grant from the Moore Foundation, the explicit purpose of which is to launch and promote open access journals like PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine. We believe that the long-term success of open access requires building broad community support, and thus we have always been engaged in promoting open access in general. However, we also believe that the long-term success of open access requires a robust and vibrant open access publishing sector, and that PLoS has to remain focused on this goal if we are to succeed. -Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stevan Harnad" <har...@ecs.soton.ac.uk> To: <american-scientist-open-access-fo...@listserver.sigmaxi.org> Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 6:19 PM Subject: Re: Draft letter for institutions to sign to implement Berlin > On Thu, 25 Dec 2003, Michael Eisen wrote: > > > PLoS and BMC are open access publishers and thus have to be expected to put > > most of our effort into promoting open-access journals, just as you put most > > of your effort into promoting self-archiving. > > Mike, > > I put all of my effort into promoting open-access provision, via the > Unified Joint Open-Access Provision Policy: > (OAJ) Researchers publish their research in an open-access journal if a > suitable one exists, otherwise > (OAA) they publish it in a suitable toll-access journal and also > self-archive it in their own research institution's open-access research archive. > > I have been promoting both components of this strategy for over 10 years, > and the OAJ cost-recovery model in particular since well before either > PLoS or BMC existed! For some time now I have been faithfully promoting > them jointly, as the complementary components they are. > > OAA (self-archiving) is not promoting a product, nor has it ever had > a subsidy or promotional budget, as PLoS and BMC have. It is being > promoted purely on the strength of the existing evidence as the powerful > and effective means that it is for providing immediate open access to all > of the peer-reviewed research literature: The existing evidence is that > OAA actually does provide at least three times as much OA as OAJ does > today, and could provide OA to all current journal articles overnight, > tonight. > > >sh> I hope... Public Library of Science (PLoS)... officially supports > >sh> and promotes the signing of this statement to institutions in its > >sh> own open-access promotional efforts. So far, both PLoS and BMC have > >sh> been promoting only [OAJ] and not [OAA] in their negotiations with > >sh> institutions. > > > > I can't speak for PLoS on my own, but will run this by our board and staff > > and will pass any additional suggestions they have on to you. > > If the Public Library of Science is dedicated to promoting OA for all > journal articles, and not just to promoting OA journal publishing for its > own articles, I hope that it will elect to use its vast subsidy to promote > the Unified Joint OA Provision Policy, rather than just promoting OAJ alone. > > Stevan Harnad > > NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open > access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at > the American Scientist Open Access Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03): > > http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html > Post discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-fo...@amsci.org > > Unified Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy: > BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access > journal whenever one exists. > http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals > BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable > toll-access journal and also self-archive it. > http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/ > http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml > http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php >
