[BOAI] Re: Wrong Advice On Open Access: History Repeating Itself

[Stevan Harnad]

On 31-Oct-09, at 10:21 AM, Françoise Salager-Meyer wrote:

> I agree that the only solution is AN INSTITUTIONAL MANDATE. My  
> question is:
>
> In view of the fact that all researchers want to publish in top- 
> notch jornals (the 5.000 core journals), isnt' there an  
> incompatibility between the pre-print publishing of peer-reviewed  
> papers and the subsequent publishing of the papers in one such  
> journal? Will the publisher agree that the pre-print be published?

(1) One *publishes* in a journals and one *deposits* in an Open Access  
(OA)  institutional repository (IR)

(2) OA Mandates are to deposit the author's final, peer-reviewed draft  
in the IR immediately upon acceptance for publication. (This is the  
refereed postprint, not the unrefereed preprint).

(3) Sixty-three percent of journals (including most of the top  
journals in each field) already endorse immediate OA deposit of the  
refereed postprint and a further 32% endorse the immediate OA deposit  
of the preprint. http://romeo.eprints.org/stats.php

(4) For embargoed deposits, the IRs have the "Almost OA" "email eprint  
request" Button: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/274-guid.html

So all postprints can be deposited immediately, the majority can be  
made OA immediately, and for the rest the "Almost OA" Button can take  
care of any user needs during any embargo (until embargoes all die  
their natural and well-deserved deaths under mounting OA pressure from  
the research community).

> I have a problem, for example, with the commercial publisher Peter  
> Lang. It does NOT allow me to put in my institutional repository the  
> papers (post-print) that have been published in Peter Lang books.

I don't know about Lang, but OA is first and foremost for journal and  
conference articles, not books. But you can always deposit and rely on  
the Button till Lang updates its policy.

> Elsevier acccepts the post-print publication under the conditon that  
> one does not use the Elsevier logo.

I don't understand. What needs to be deposited is the postprint, not  
the logo. And Elsevier is completely green on immediate OA self- 
archiving of both postprints and preprints.

> Can anymore please answer the pre-print question: will a commercial  
> publisher accept that one put on one's institution IR the pre-prints  
> of the papers to be later published in their journals?

The preprint predates even submission to the journal. It does not need  
the publisher's endorsement.

Hope this helps.

Stevan Harnad

>
> Thankx a lot.
> Françoise Salager-Meyer (Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida. Venezuela)
>
> I am about to give a lecture on Open Access in developing countries  
> and I would very much like to have a reply to my question!
>
>