On 07-Feb.-09 at 14:18, Klaus Graf wrote : > 2009/2/6 Bernard Rentier <[email protected]>: > > 1. Universities may legitimately own a repository of all the > > publications by > > their employees, no matter what their statutes can be, they may > > also impose > > a mandate and simply enforce it by making it conditional for futher > > in-house > > funding, advancement, promotions, etc. > > This isn't true for Germany, see http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=mandat > Legal mainstream in Germany says that the freedom of research forbidds > mandating on university level. > > Klaus Graf
It is most unfortunate for German researchers and for German Institutions (Universities & Research Centres). As opposed to researchers in other countries, they are missing a superb opportunity for efficient worldwide dissemination of the knowledge they generate... I have a hard time understanding what this "legal mainstream" means and what is the rationale for it... It sounds more like a moral mainstream to me. Indeed, is it unclear whether it is a law, a decree, a widely followed institutional rule, or a dominant frame of mind ? Why should people be afraid of institutional mandates ? Just because they are orders ? commandments ? Certainly not because they deprive researchers from their freedom to publish wherever they want. Freedom to decide where to publish is perfectly safe, even with IR mandates. IRs are not scientific journals and they have no intention, even in the long run, to replace them (OA journals are a different matter and they do not change a single bit the role and objectives of IRs). Depositing in an IR has nothing to do with submitting a paper to peers for review and to editors for acceptance in a journal. Basically, depositing a paper in the local IR is exactly like depositing a reprint of the paper ay the local library. Sending it to a potential reader upon request by a simple keystroke (if the paper cannot be made freely available yet legally) is just like sending a reprint by mail (but easier and cheaper). We have done this for many decades without complaints from anyone. Why would it turn into a legal worry now ? No researcher would complain (and consider it an infringement upon his/ her academic freedom to publish) if we mandated them to deposit reprints at the local library. It would be just another duty like they have many others. It would not be terribly useful, needless to say, but it would not cause an uproar. Qualitatively, nothing changes. Quantitatively, readership explodes. Best regards, Bernard Rentier
