[GOAL] Re: Definition of OA and its Priorities and Obstacles

[Jan Velterop]

What does this prove, pray?

A search in Google Scholar for "Open Access" and God yields 36,300 results, and "Open Access" and the devil 10,600 results.

I share Peter M-R's unhappiness with the term 'libre OA', though maybe for different reasons. It is tautological: true OA (as we all – including Harnad – envisioned as our goal in the BOAI) is 'libre' already. In French that seems to be clear: Open Access is usually translated as Accès libre. What would 'libre OA' be in French? Accès libre libre?

Having a 'first things first' approach with 'green' OA to reaching the OA goal is a legitimate stance to take (whether or not I or anybody else agrees with the idea); arbitrarily and unilaterally changing the goalposts – or the definition of what OA should be – along the way is not.

Jan Velterop


On 29 Aug 2012, at 22:09, Hélène.Bosc wrote:

> Peter,
> you wrote : "I am less than happy with the term "libre" which does not correspond to usage elsewhere and is at best confusing"
>  
> In French we say "Les absents ont toujours tort" (Absent people are always wrong) . 
>  It seems that in April 2008, you were not present in the OA movement (Suber's and Harnad's definition!!!) and specially in the American Scientist discussions when  "Libre and Gratis" appeared. Please see :
> http://listserver.sigmaxi.org/sc/wa.exe?A2=ind08&L=american-scientist-open-access-forum&O=D&F=l&P=37608
>  
>  A research with Google Scholar  with "Open Access" gives the following results:
> http://bit.ly/OAsuberGS 3240
> http://bit.ly/OAharnadGS 3740
> http://bit.ly/OAmurrayrustGS 716
>  
> The print of these 6980 "Open Access" is too strong today, in every mind and  you cannot resist to what has been written about "Open Access" during all these past years by "two individuals ", as you say. 
> (Quoted from one of your recent messages : "It is now left to one (SH) or possibly two (PS) individuals to state what OA is." ) 
>  
>  
> Hélène Bosc
> Open Access to Scientific Communication 
> http://open-access.infodocs.eu/
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Peter Murray-Rust
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> Cc: JISC-REPOSITORIES at jiscmail.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 7:29 PM
> Subject: [GOAL] Re: Definition of OA and its Priorities and Obstacles
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 5:53 PM, Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>> JV:  "the definition of OA... is being changed... instead of any OA achievements
>> being measured against the goal that has been set"
> 
> The 2002 BOAI definition was refined in 2008 to name its two constituents:
> 
> http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/newsletter/08-02-08.htm#gratis-libre
> 
> This statement is simply wrong.
> 
> The linked resource is written by Peter Suber alone. He uses the pronoun "I" throughout much of the mail. I applaud his efforts to describe the situation. (I am less than happy with the term "libre" which does not correspond to usage elsewhere and is at best confusing. But since it can apparently mean almost removal of any condition, no matter how minor, it has very limited use).
> 
> At the end Peter Suber makes it clear he is NOT "refining BOAI". He says 
> (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/08/greengold-oa-and-gratislibre-oa.html )
> 
> I'm [PS]  not proposing a change in the BBB definition, and I haven't retreated an inch in my support for it.  I'm simply proposing vocabulary to help us talk unambiguously about two species of free online access. [PMR's emphasis]
> 
> P.
> 
> -- 
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
> 
> 
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