[BOAI] Northeastern University Libraries sign SCOAP3 Expression of Interest

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from Northeastern University.  --Peter Suber.]

Northeastern University Libraries sign SCOAP3 Expression of Interest

Northeastern University Libraries are participating in SCOAP3, the
Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics
Publishing. The goal of SCOAP3 is to create an innovative economic model to
achieve open access to peer-reviewed literature in high-energy physics
(HEP). The model seeks to redirect the high cost of subscription
expenditures to instead provide open access to HEP literature – and, in
doing so, achieve more value than is possible within a subscription-based
system. George Alverson, professor of physics at Northeastern, is pleased
with the Libraries’ decision to participate: “We can’t continue under the
current closed system…. No one wants paper anymore; they want to be able to
access everything freely online.”

The SCOAP3 initiative is being endorsed by dozens of universities and
research institutions around the world.  Under the SCOAP3 model, each
partner will finance its contribution by cancelling subscriptions to five
core journals in the field of high energy physics (HEP) and two additional
journals with a wider focus. Each participating country (currently over 23
countries) will contribute according to its share of HEP publishing
activity. The transition to open access will be facilitated by the fact that
the large majority of HEP articles are published in a very small number of
peer-reviewed journals.

Due to the high rate of publishing activity and number of institutional
subscriptions to HEP journals in the United States, the success of the
SCOAP3 proposal depends on the full support of U.S. libraries. Provided that
SCOAP3 funding partners are prepared to engage in long-term commitments, it
is hoped that the affected publishers will agree to enter into
negotiations.  As of December 15, 2009, SCOAP3 has received pledges for over
$2.8 million from over 100 U.S. libraries and library consortia. Worldwide,
SCOAP3 partners have collectively pledged over €6.5 million, or 65% of the
amount needed to convert to open access the entire literature of the field
of high energy physics.

For more information about SCOAP3, visit http://scoap3.org/index.html.


About Northeastern University Libraries:

Northeastern University Libraries consist of Snell Library, John D. O’Bryant
African-American Institute Library, and Marine Science Center Library. The
libraries welcome over two million online and walk-in visitors a year.
Collections include 967,000 volumes, 126,000 e-books, and 35,000 electronic
journals. The libraries provide award-winning research and instructional
services, a pioneering multimedia content creation space, a very popular
Meet the Author series, and house internationally recognized special
collections that document social justice efforts in the Greater Boston area.
Northeastern has an ambitious vision to expand its digital initiatives,
building on its institutional repository and digitization of special
collections. The libraries continue to break new ground in scholarly
communication, interdisciplinary research, and the emerging field of
transliteracy – the ability to read, write, and interact across multiple
media formats. Northeastern University Libraries lead the way in redefining
library service in the 21st century.

For more information about Scholarly Communication at Northeastern
University Libraries, visit http://www.lib.neu.edu/services/scholarly/.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/boai-forum/attachments/20100304/d794e3e6/attachment.html