[BOAI] {Disarmed} The Open Access Blues: Fervent Plea to SHERPA Romeo for Colour Reform

Mon Aug 15 21:04:35 BST 2011

***Apologies for Cross-posting***

Across the eight years since its launch in
2003<http://listserver.sigmaxi.org/sc/wa.exe?A2=ind03&L=american-scientist-open-access-forum&D=1&O=D&F=Pl&P=73129>
, SHERPA Romeo <http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/>'s importance and value as a
resource have been steadily increasing. The most recently announced
upgrade<http://threader.ecs.soton.ac.uk/lists/boaiforum/2389.html>
covers
18,000 journals and is (1) More up to Date, with (2) More Accurate Journal
Level Searching, (3) More Search Options, (4) Electronic ISSNs, and (5)
Faster Performance.

In addition to congratulating SHERPA Romeo, let me use this occasion to
repeat the plea I made eight years ago to adjust the colour code to provide
the information that users need the most (and at the same time bring the
colour coding in line with the terminology that has since gained wide
currency: "Green OA"):

Although the distinction between journals that endorse the immediate OA
self-archiving of *both* the refereed postprint *and* the pre-refereeing
preprint (*P+p*) and journals that endorse the immediate OA self-archiving
of the refereed postprint but not the pre-refereeing preprint (*P*) is not
completely empty, it is of incomparably less importance and relevance to OA
than the distinction between journals that do and do not endorse the
immediate OA self-archiving of the refereed postprint (*P* vs. *not-P*).

It is OA self-archiving of the refereed postprint that the OA movement is
about and for. And it is OA self-archiving of the refereed postprint that is
meant by the term "Green OA."

And yet SHERPA Romeo continues to code *P+p* as "green" and *P* as "blue"!

There is no "Blue OA." And the over 200 funders and
institutions<http://roarmap.eprints.org/> that
have already mandated Green OA have not mandated "Blue OA": They could not
care less whether the journals endorse the self-archiving of the unrefereed
preprint *in addition to the refereed postprint*: *Green OA only concerns
the refereed postprint.*

It is for this reason that EPrints
Romeo<http://romeo.eprints.org/stats.php> has
steadfastly generated a colour-corrected version of the SHERPA Romeo summary
statistics pie-chart across these eight years -- in addition to generating
the statistics for journals as well as for publishers. (SHERPA Romeo
originally covered only publishers, but the statistics for journals are much
more informative -- and positive -- than the statistics for publishers,
since one publisher might publish one journal and another might publish
2000!.)

To see the immediate gain in clarity and consistency from suppressing the *
P+p*/*P* ("green"/"blue") distinction in the summary statistics, compare the
SHERPA Romeo and EPrints Romeo summary pies for publishers below. (Note that
the EPrints Romeo data are static, because they have not been updated for
several years. The eye will show that for publishers the proportions are
much the same, but have gotten somewhat better in recent years.

I beg SHERPA Romeo to add the simplified, colour-corrected pie alongside the
particoloured one (with the explanation that in the OA world, "Green" means
P, not just *P+p*.). It would make a world of difference for user
understanding.

In addition, now that SHERPA is covering the data at the individual journal
level, I urge providing the journal-level pie too, for it not only gives a
more realistic picture, but an even more positive one.

*SHERPA Romeo's current "Green = Green & Blue = Green" publisher
pie-chart* (based
on proportions of publishers):

*EPrints Romeo's colour-corrected publisher pie-chart, in which Green =
Green OA* (and preprints-only endorsements are coded as "pale green") (based
on proportions of publishers, but *out of date by several years*):

*EPrints Romeo's colour-corrected journals pie-chart, in which Green = Green
OA* (and preprints-only endorsements are coded as "pale green") (based on
proportions of journals). Note that the overall proportions are even better
(but these data are*out of date by several years*, hence need updating,
though they will not change much, as they already covered most of the big
publishers, with the largest number of journals):

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Jane Smith <Jane.H.Smith --
nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> **Apologises for Cross-Posting******
>
> ** **
>
> SHERPA Services’ is excited to announce the launch of an upgraded version
> of SHERPA RoMEO (www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo) as part of ongoing improvements
> to the SHERPA RoMEO service. ****
>
> The new version contains significant additions and improvements to RoMEO,
> and now provides:****
>
> *Increased Journal Coverage:*
>
> SHERPA-RoMEO now has its own Journals database containing over 18000
> journals including many titles not covered by the other lists we use -
> Zetoc, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and ENTREZ****
>
> *More up to Date:*****
>
> The new SHERPA RoMEO Journals database is faster than other lists in
> responding to new titles and journals that change publishers****
>
> ** **
>
> *More Accurate Journal Level Searching:*
>
> The new journals database means that RoMEO identifies rights holders more
> accurately, especially where a commercial publisher is publishing on behalf
> of a society****
>
> ** **
>
> *More Search Options:*
>
> In addition to searching for journals by title or ISSNs and publisher
> names, an advanced search option lets users search for publishers’ by RoMEO
> colour, RoMEO ID and RoMEO update date****
>
>           ****
>
> *Electronic ISSNs:*
>
> RoMEO now holds data on electronic ISSN’s in addition to print ISSN’s and
> users can search for both using the ISSN search field ****
>
> ** **
>
> *Faster Performance:*
>
> Technical upgrades have made many features work faster than before****
>
> * *
>
> *About SHERPA-RoMEO *
>
> SHERPA-RoMEO uses a simple colour-code classification to simplify complex
> publisher and journal policy information and provides impartial, easy to
> follow and accurate guidance on permissions and conditions of rights given
> to authors by journal publishers. ****
>
> SHERPA-RoMEO offers users the ability to:****
>
> **·         **View summaries of publishers' and journal copyright policies
> in relation to self-archiving****
>
> **·         **View if publisher and journal policies comply with research
> funder archiving policies, mandates and guidelines****
>
> **·         **To search journal and publisher information by Journal
> Title, Publisher Name, ISSN and eSSN****
>
> Additionally, SHERPA-RoMEO provides lists of****
>
> **·         **Publishers that allow the use of their PDFs in Institutional
> Repositories****
>
> **·         **Publisher with Paid Options****
>
> SHERPA-RoMEO is seen as an essential resource by many in the Open Access
> community. ****
>
> This development work is funded by JISC <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/>. Journal
> information is kindly provided by the British Library's Zetoc<http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/>service hosted by MIMAS, the Directory of Open Access Journals (
> DOAJ <http://www.doaj.org/>) hosted by Lund University Libraries, and the
> Entrez<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/citmatch_help.html#JournalLists>journal list hosted by the NCBI.
> ****
>
> *About SHERPA Services’*****
>
> SHERPA Services’ are based at the Centre for Research Communications<http://crc.nottingham.ac.uk/>,
> University of Nottingham and maintain on behalf of the open access
> community a portfolio of services: RoMEO <http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/>,
> JULIET <http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/> and OpenDOAR<http://www.opendoar.org/>
> .****
>
> The Centre for Research Communications<http://crc.nottingham.ac.uk/index.php>(CRC) was formed in April 2009, to help to support and inform the changes
> and new ideas in the way that research is communicated around the world. The
> CRC houses a portfolio of open access projects and initiatives currently
> undertaken by the University of Nottingham.****
>
> OpenDOAR****
>
> http://www.opendoar.org/****
>
> ** **
>
> RoMEO****
>
> http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo****
>
> ** **
>
> JULIET****
>
> http://www/sherpa.ac.uk/juliet ****
>
> ** **
>
> JISC****
>
> http://www.jisc.ac.uk/****
>
> ** **
>
> *For all enquiries regarding RoMEO please contact: **romeo at sherpa.ac.uk*<romeo at sherpa.ac.uk>
> **
>
> *15th August 2011*
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Jane H Smith****
>
> BSc (hons), MSc, MCLIP****
>
> SHERPA Services Development Officer****
>
> ** **
>
> Tel: 01159514341****
>
> ** **
>
> Centre for Research Communications****
>
> Greenfield Medical Library****
>
> Queens Medical Centre****
>
> University of Nottingham****
>
> NG7 2UH****
>
> ** **
>
> CRC http://crc.nottingham.ac.uk/****
>
> ** **
>
> RoMEO www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo****
>
> JULIET www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet****
>
> *Open*DOAR www.opendoar.org****
>
> ** **
>
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