greetings - Stevan Harnad wrote:
Perhaps it would be a good idea if OSI subsidized authors from disadvantaged countries and institutions to provide OA to their articles by self-archiving them in their institutional archives: Then the subsidy might generate more OA articles from the same author and institution for the same amount of subsidy money!
Once an institutional repository has been set up, the cost for self-archiving on a per-item basis is virtually nil; it takes perhaps 10-15 minutes of the author's time, using server capacity already developed. If the desire is to provide funding to set up institutional repositories, my suggestion is that this makes most sense on a systemic (e.g. JISC, the CARL Institutional Repository Program in Canada) or at minimum institutional basis, rather than a per-article basis. There are many roads to Open Access, and in my opinion, this is a very good thing. There are many different disciplines, countries, institutions, etc., in the world. The best approach in one field or region will not necessarily be the best approach for all. To get Open Access going quickly - around the world - likely means somewhat different flavors of Open Access. It's easier to adjust OA models to local circumstances than it is to adjust local circumstances (such as whether advanced education is public or private, and if, public, coordinated at national or provincial/state levels) to OA. Kudos to JISC and OSI for these important initiatives. Heather G. Morrison Project Coordinator BC Electronic Library Network ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: 604-268-7001 Fax: 604-291-3023 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.eln.bc.ca
