From the point of view of authors, it is already shown that the visibility
and impact of open access published papers is greatly increased (2). This is
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 08:45:57 +0530
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
Friends:
[The following has been posted by the Electronic Publishing Trust for
Development on March 19, 2004, to the Health Information Forum sponsored
by the WHO (HIF-net)]
Recent messages have shown that the concept of Open Access is now beginning
to be more widely understood and earlier misconceptions dispelled. We have
responded individually to correspondents, but feel it would be helpful to
provide further information to the general list.
For some time, the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development has been
promoting the importance of the open access movement for the strengthening
of the science base in developing countries. The EPT web site
(http://www.epublishingtrust.org) now contains much information on open
access, particularly as it relates to developing countries. Additionally the
Bioline International web site (http://www.bioline.org.br) contains the full
text of some 28 journals published in developing countries, free to all.
These journals contain much research of medical significance and so are of
interest to this list. In order that developing countries are also part of
the open access evolution, Bioline International has set up an Open Access
Archive (bioline.utsc.utoronto.ca) specifically for developing country
publishers. Much of the material on the main Bioline International site is
now also archived in a way that is compatible with the open access search
engines and so interoperable with the increasing numbers of Archives being
established around the world.
Institutional archiving was one of two routes recommended by the
Soros-supported Budapest Open Access Initiative (1). As well as freeing
research literature from the crippling toll-access situation, it also
promotes the research output of all contributing institutes. The
establishment of institutional archives in the developing countries ensures
that their national research becomes mainstream and contributes on an equal
footing to the global knowledge pool.
It is important to understand that open access Institutional Archives
contain already reviewed and published research papers. Quality is
unaffected. Scientists can continue to publish in their preferred refereed
journals, merely archiving the already published papers in their
institutional archives, simultaneously or subsequently. Approaching 60% of
publishers (including Nature publisher and Elsevier) allow simultaneous
archiving to take place. The remainder seem likely to follow, or accept
institutional archiving a few months after the primary publication.
Publishers now recognise that this will not affect their sales - as has been
clearly demonstrated by the physics communities' archive, http://arxiv.org,
which has existed side by side with prestigious physics journals for more
than 10 years now.
the ultimate aim of scientific publishing and leads to the establishment of
important research partnerships with fellow scientists in their field. The
professional isolation felt by many scientists in developing countries is
overcome. Open access archives can be established at almost no cost, or
institutes may use an already-established archive. All software is free of
charge and there is much technical help available to institutes (see below).
This is therefore a highly appropriate route for developing country
institutes to follow, and great strides are already being made. India is
planning its second OA workshop and has a series of institute meetings
planned (3); OA workshops are also planned this summer in Brasil and China
to raise awareness and transfer technical support.
The alternative BOAI route to open access is via the establishment of OA
journals, the route followed by BioMedCentral, PubMedCentral and others.
This route is likely to take longer to accomplish, but is making an
important contribution to the freeing of research literature from
unaffordable subscription charges. Again, quality of publications is firmly
maintained.
Attached, below, is a list of sites showing a) papers on OA developments, b)
the growing international support for this endeavour, c) activities already
underway in the developing world and technical information, such as access
to the free software for the establishment of interoperable archives and a
FAQ answering many common misunderstandings.
The connectivity problem is gradually being overcome, as shown by the
message from Najeeb Al-Shorbaji (shorbajin@emro.who.int), and it is
important that developing countries are part of the information evolution
now underway. The message from Dr.Vinod Scaria (drvinod@hotpop.com) shows
how fast things are beginning to move and how the impact of OA publications
is encouraging publishers, authors and their institutes. The problem of
language (upieks@fetp.org) remains and should be the main focus of
development once access problems are resolved.
We hope the following links are of value to list readers. If further
information or help is required, please contact us.
Barbara Kirsop, EPT Secretariat, UK, barbara@biostrat.demon.co.uk
Leslie Chan, Trustee EPT, Bioline International, Canada,
chan@utsc.utoronto.ca
Subbiah Arunachalam, Trustee EPT, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
arun@mssrf.res.in
(1). Soros Budapest Open Access Initiative
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
(2). S. Lawrence paper in Nature, 411(6387):521, 2002 'Free online
availability substantially increases a paper's impact'
http://www.neci.nec.com/~lawrence/papers/online-nature01/
(3) 'India's march towards open access', Subbiah Arunachalam, recent
SciDevNet paper
http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=243&
language=1
a) SOME INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS TO THE OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT
World Summit for the Information Society
Declaration of Principles 3,28 and Plan of Action C3i and 22d
http://www.wsis.org
Wellcome Trust Statement of Support for OA
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
Berlin Declaration (signed by many research institutes in Germany, France
and other EU countries)
http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html
American Research Libraries, SPARC statement and guidelines
http://www.arl.org/sparc/
b) DEVELOPING COUNTRY OA INITIATIVES AND PAPERS
Bioline International main web site (Brazil/Canada non-profit initiative in
support of developing country publishers)
http://www.bioline.org.br
Indian Institute of Science OA server
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/
Bangalore OA workshop 2003
http://www.ias.ac.in/epubworkshop/curriculum.html
L Chan, B Kirsop, 'Impact of OA on developing country science', Ariadne, 30,
2001
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/oai-chan
Open Access Now Interview of Subbiah Arunachalam
http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/archive/?page=features&issue=11
c) FREE OA DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES
OA archives information and support
http://www.eprints.org
Frequently Asked Question on OA
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
Handbook for setting up eprints servers
http://www.eprints.org/handbook/
OAIster search service
http://www.oaister.org/
Directory of Open Access Journals
http://www.curl.ac.uk/about/isca.html
