Infact, the very purpose of my comment was to avoid any confusion
between Copy-Rights and Open Access. Open Access is compatible with
Copy-Rights". However this confusion got unfortunately created. The
phrase "Public Domain Books" was important in the Google Item in
question.
Open Access works on the principle that the first rights holder (the
author) retains his/her right to self-archive his/her published
article. And now publishers like Elsevier allow authors to
self-archive their articles. Remember, this is in addition to
publication by tradional channels.
Moreover there are now OA Publishing models (BioMed Central, PLoS are
just few examples) which allow the articles to be "Born-Open Access".
However this OA philosphy works best for scholary articles only
because their authors are primarily interested in wider circulation of
their articles.
But for books, this philosphy does not work. Book Authors are
interested in royalities. I wonder, if they or their publishers will
allow open access of their books.
So, for OA to work, the culture of publishing needs to be reformed.
Different publishing models are being tried. Authors need to know what
is in their favor. And what options are available to them for their
intended purpose.
--Thanks,
Sukhdev Singh, NIC.
On 08/09/06, Vasumathi Sriganesh
This is in response to Dr. Arunachalam's mail and Mr. Sukhdev Singh's comment
Could one of you (or anyone on the list) explain this in a fairly simple and brief note - I have not had the time to go deep into this........... How has the U Michigan managed to put on the web - books that are still copyright protected? Unless Indian libraries know the complete legal process involved, we cannot do this.
Further I would be interested in knowing people's opinions on how open access will work in the long run? As a professional librarian, I definitely will be the happiest to see everything being available free. But the practical human being in me thinks "Someone has got to pay for all this". And being in the medical line, I am aware that approx 70% of healthcare in India is provided by private practitioners. I dont know the percentage of private practitioners who write articles, but I know that several of them do. If all journals became open access, and the publishing is funded by Institutions, then how will private practitioners write? Who will pay for their articles? Simply depositing them in open access repositories do not guarantee the reach out to audience, and then there is a question about the acceptability of it as a publication, if it is not in a regular journal
Please note - I am not trying to raise any debate of pro or anti open access. I am genuinely wanting to learn about the best ways in which people can get access to all published information - either free, or at reasonable / affordable costs. I would hate to see some good efforts go because of wrong ways of implementation. I also openly admit that I do not know all developments that have happened so far about open access.
I welcome any knowledge bits that people will provide me.
Regards
Vasumathi