{"id":56,"date":"2009-05-27T17:38:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T21:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/?p=56"},"modified":"2012-02-28T21:44:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T02:44:08","slug":"some-background-on-open-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2009\/05\/27\/some-background-on-open-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Some background on open access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I assume that readers of the open access discussions on this blog are familiar with the state of play in the area, but just in case, here&#8217;s some background.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Peter Suber defines open access in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earlham.edu\/~peters\/fos\/brief.htm\">A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access<\/a> as follows: &#8220;Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.&#8221; Suber&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earlham.edu\/~peters\/fos\/brief.htm\">Introduction<\/a> also describes the two primary approaches to achieving open access:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Green&#8221; OA, in which articles are provided by their authors via posting on a personal website or in an institutional or subject-based repository. Under the green OA approach, open access is provided as a <em>supplement<\/em> to access in a peer-reviewed venue.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Gold&#8221; OA, in which articles are provided as part of the normal operation of the journal in which they are published. Under the gold OA approach, open access is provided <em>directly by<\/em> a peer-reviewed venue itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Suber&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earlham.edu\/~peters\/fos\/overview.htm\">Open Access Overview<\/a> provides more detailed background, and I recommend it highly. Why don&#8217;t you read it now?\u00a0 I&#8217;ll wait.<\/p>\n<p>Back? Good.<\/p>\n<p>Access to the knowledge generated at universities is a good. It is what universities are about. Open access is therefore deserving of support, and to that end, a number of universities have promoted it through exhortations or policies of various sorts.It is important, however, that open access to scholarly writings be generated in appropriate and sustainable ways, consistent with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aaup.org\/AAUP\/issues\/AF\/\">principles of academic freedom<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wellcome.ac.uk\/stellent\/groups\/corporatesite\/@policy_communications\/documents\/web_document\/wtd003182.pdf\">laws of economics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At Harvard, we have taken <a href=\"http:\/\/osc.hul.harvard.edu\/policies\">a particular approach<\/a> by voting open-access policies composed of three aspects:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Permission: <\/strong>Faculty give permission (technically, grant a license) to the university to make their articles available via open access.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Waiver: <\/strong>Faculty can waive the license for any article at their sole discretion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deposit: <\/strong>Faculty provide a copy of their articles to the university for storage, preservation, and distribution in an institutional repository.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>To date, three of Harvard&#8217;s ten or so faculties have passed such policies, the texts of which are provided <a href=\"http:\/\/osc.hul.harvard.edu\/hfaspolicy\">here<\/a>. In addition, other schools, including Stanford&#8217;s School of Education and MIT, have enacted similar policies, and others are considering them.<\/p>\n<p>I plan on addressing some of the motivations for the policy and concerns that are commonly raised in future posts. If there are particular topics that you think should be considered, please let me know in the comments or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eecs.harvard.edu\/shieber\/\">by email<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I assume that readers of the open access discussions on this blog are familiar with the state of play in the area, but just in case, here&#8217;s some background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6034,618,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meta","category-open-access","category-scholarly-communication"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pLfN-U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2009\/06\/11\/the-argument-for-gold-oa-support\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":0},"title":"The argument for gold OA support","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Thursday, June 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Are green and gold open access independent of each other? In particular, is worry about gold OA a waste of time, and are expenditures on it a waste of money? Stevan Harnad has brought up this issue in response to a recent talk I gave at Cal Tech, and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1515,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2012\/09\/17\/is-the-harvard-open-access-policy-legally-sound\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":1},"title":"Is the Harvard open-access policy legally sound?","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Monday, September 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"...evidenced by a written instrument... \"To Sign a Contract 3\" image by shho. Used by permission. The idea behind rights-retention open-access policies is, as this year\u2019s OA Week slogan goes, to \u201cset the default to open access\u201d. Traditionally, authors retained rights to their scholarly articles only if they expressly negotiated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1000,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2011\/11\/16\/how-should-funding-agencies-pay-open-access-fees\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":2},"title":"How should funding agencies pay open-access fees?","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Wednesday, November 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201c...a drop in the bucket.\u201dDrop I (2007) by Delox - Martin De\u00e1k via flickr. Used by permission (CC by-nc-nd) At the recent Berlin 9 conference, there was much talk about the role of funding agencies in open-access publication, both through funding-agency-operated journals like the new eLife journal\u00a0and through direct reimbursement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":271,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2009\/08\/05\/new-paper-on-oa-in-plos-biology\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":3},"title":"New paper on OA in PLoS Biology","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Wednesday, August 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My paper on the \"open-access compact\" is now available from PLoS Biology and at my web site. An excerpt: Scholars write articles to be read\u2014the more access to their articles the better\u2014so one might think that the open-access approach to publishing, in which articles are freely available online to all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":532,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2010\/08\/06\/how-much-does-a-cope-compliant-open-access-fund-cost\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":4},"title":"How much does a COPE-compliant open-access fund cost?","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Friday, August 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tightrope walker, sculpture, Berlin, 2008. Photo from beezerella at flickr.com. Used by permission. The short answer? \u00a0Almost nothing. The Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity is a statement of commitment to \"the\u00a0timely establishment of\u00a0durable mechanisms for\u00a0underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its\u00a0faculty and published in\u00a0fee-based open-access journals and\u00a0for which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tightrope walker, sculpture, Berlin, 2008. Photo from beezerella at flickr.com. Used by permission.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4053\/4608050847_ea6934502c_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1552,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2012\/10\/17\/guide-released-on-good-practices-for-university-open-access-policies\/","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":5},"title":"Guide released on good practices for university open-access policies","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Wednesday, October 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to forward on the announcement that the Harvard Open Access Project has just released an initial version of a guide on \"good practices for university open-access policies\". It was put together by Peter Suber and myself with help from many, including Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Ada Emmett, Heather Joseph,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;open access&quot;","block_context":{"text":"open access","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/scholarly-communication\/open-access\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}