Lee Miller wrote: > I strongly disagree. Disciplines do share with their own > researchers a common interest in maximising the visibility, > usage and impact of their research output. Progress in any > discipline stands to gain when research results are quickly > shared with other researchers in that discipline.
But who (or what) are 'disciplines' exactly? Who is it that is sharing the interest of researchers in maximising their research visibility, etc? Who is it that can deliver a self-archived literature for that discipline? The best stab at defining a discipline for this purpose is that it is composed of a collection of learned societies, professional bodies and research funders (which happily exist within some disciplines). In other words, a 'discipline' is a NON-entity - just a collection of various parties around a subject area. Whilst these may all have the furtherance of the subject and the maximisation of research visibility at heart (may do; look at the current evidence and decide for yourself) they are still unlikely to be anywhere near as effective at implementing successful open access archives as individual employing institutions, which cover all disciplines and all researchers within those institutions - funded or not, society members or not, professionally-affiliated or not. Alma Swan Key Perspectives Ltd Truro, UK
