The two items that follow below are by Vinod Scario from Peter Suber's Open Access News http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html
It provides an interesting and inspiring example of the power and value of OAI-interoperability http://www.openarchives.org/ and the interdependence of the two open-access strategies (open-access self-archiving and open-access journal publishing) that this new online open-access journal, produced in India, is being made accessible by archiving it http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/archives.html in a specially created sector of CogPrints in the UK, http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/view/subjects/JOURNALS.html a multidisciplinary central archive created in 1997 for author self-archiving (which is now being done more via distributed institutional eprint archives -- to which the CogPrints software was adapted by Rob Tansley, creator of eprints http://software.eprints.org/#ep2 and then of dspace http://www.dspace.org/ -- rather than via central ones like CogPrints). Yet there is no reason a central archive like CogPrints (or, for that matter, any of the distributed institutional archives) cannot provide a locus for open-access journals too! OAI-interoperability means that they will all be picked up and integrated by cross-archive harvesters like OOAster! http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Editorial of the Inaugural issue of Calicut Medical Journal- Online, open access journals: the only hope for the future http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/2003;1(1)e1.htm discusses in detail how and why Calicut Medical Journal supports the Open Access initiatives.In his editorial, Dr Ramachandran, stresses the need to disseminate knowledge in the widest possible sphere, and especially between scholars of other developing countries and asserts that Open Access is the best possible solution to achieve this goal.The Editorial also criticises the widely publicised " author pays" model as "discouraging" for scholars from developing world and states it would badly affect the already low level of publications from these countries. It also discusses the various advantages of being Online and Open. He also asserts the need for more regional Open Access Journals to meet the specific demands of scholars and clinicians and for the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of health services.The editorial concludes with the statement that Calicut Medical Journal would play a dual role - being International by being online ,Open and upholding the highest standards of publication,and at the same time catering to the needs of Indian Scholars and Clinicians. Posted by Vinod Scaria at 12:27 PM. 2. The Calicut Medical Journal is Online http://calicutmedicaljournal.org/ The much awaited Calicut Medical Journal is Online. The new Open Access BioMedical Journal published by the Calicut Medical College Alumni Association, is the second Indian Open Access BioMedical Journal. With new Open Access medical Journals coming up in India, existing publishers are already feeling the heat of competetion . While these two Open Access Journals offer online acceptance of manuscripts, speedy peer review and almost instant publication, with a host of utilities, and ofcourse without a pricetag, other publishers are still in dark with their outdated modes of peer review and publication. The web statistics of these Journals are telltele signs of the fact that Open Access Publications are widely embraced. Being Open Access, these Journals also aim to have an International impact, which was hitherto virtually impossible in the conventional publishing model. Posted by Vinod Scaria at 12:22 PM.