[Taxacom] Blackwell Publishing Journal News - July 2006 - Number 15 ; shut down our archives?

Tue Jul 11 11:38:58 CDT 2006

I'm not totally sure why this is a bad thing. Everything costs money,  
the issue is who pays and how. Nothing is ever "free" (as in beer).  
Open Access s in no way free. Somebody, somewhere, always pays.

If publishers feel there is value in digitizing old literature,  
surely we should encourage this. Instead of "us and them", what about  
pursing a strategy where the taxonomic community makes the case that  
it can add value to this material, not only through mark up but  
through increasing findability. I'd argue that if we can show that  
tools we develop will increase access to publisher's holdings, they'd  
see a reason for supporting our efforts.

Nor do I see why this undermines BHL.

Maybe I'm being dense or naive...

Regards

Rod

On 11 Jul 2006, at 12:42, Donat Agosti wrote:

> Please check out this release by Blackwell regarding open access.
>
> As much as it is advantageous to have more and more digital  
> journals, the
> more the divide between those having something and those having  
> nothing
> widens, since hardly any of the content is free. Furhtermore,  
> having access
> to 3,000 years of journals means, that in fact Blackwell opened for
> themselves another stream of income, this time not claiming  
> copyright but
> the effort spent to digitize the content. In fact, this has the  
> same effect
> as copyright.
>
> Since Blackwell asks individual societies for paying the costs of  
> scanning,
> if they want to have their journals open access, one could argue at  
> the same
> time, that Blackwell ought to pay each society a royalty if they  
> sell an
> article. All the content has not been generated by Blackwell, and  
> thus this
> is not a fair deal. It might be there is more language hidden in  
> contracts,
> but this is not to be found in the release below.
>
> I would also argue, that this development is undermining the  
> success of the
> Biodiversity Heritage Library.
>
> Finally, the advantage of open access is only on a very short time  
> access to
> pdfs: the real impact will yield tools such as open text mining,  
> which are
> prevented by Blackwell's behavior.
>
> An additional comment regarding open access is on
> http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html
>
> Donat Agosti
>
>
> ------------------
> BLACKWELL PUBLISHING JOURNAL NEWS
> July 2006 – Number 15
>
> Bookmark the Journal News website:
> http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journalnews
>
> To download the entire July issue as a PDF for printing, click here
>
>
> Editorial
>
> The open access interest is now focused on mandated posting of  
> articles on
> Institutional and Subject Repositories and we have reported  
> developments in
> the United States and UK.  The Online Open trial which now covers 98
> journals is attracting around 8-10 articles a month.
>
> The other main news this month is the launch of our Journal  
> Digitization
> Program. The first 158 journals in the program represent 2.6  
> million pages
> and almost 3000 years of content.  We shall be reporting on the  
> expected
> increased usage of these titles.
>
> There are also descriptions of our new services for authors and  
> editors, and
> the Blackwell Executive Seminars.  We have run five of these  
> seminars, aimed
> at journal editors and society executives, in the United States and  
> are now
> extending the series to Europe.  Spaces are still available for the  
> seminar
> to be held in London in September.
>
> Bob Campbell
> President, Blackwell Publishing
>
>
> Contents of this issue:
>
> The UK Research Councils Break Ranks
> Research Councils issue their own policies on OA.
>
> Where Next for the NIH’s Public Access Stance?
> NIH debates recommending versus mandating.
>
> Blackwell Launches 3000 Years of Digitized Journal Backfiles
> 158 journal backfiles are now available and orders are already  
> coming in.
>
> Funding and Bureaucracy, not Access to Journals, are Chief  
> Obstacles to
> Scientific Productivity
> New study finds that the culture of research funding is the main  
> block to
> science.
>
> Impact of Self-Archiving on Subscriptions
> Institutional and subject repositories not yet replacing library  
> journal
> collections.
>
> Impact Factors 2005 Released
> 2005 Impact Factors look good but must be interpreted with caution.
>
> Annual Seminar of the Committee on Publication Ethics
> Committee aims to provide practical advice to scientific editors.
>
> New CME Accreditation for Medical Journals
> Continuing Medical Education credits offered for a selection of  
> journals.
>
> Extended Online Services for Authors and Editors
> Online tracking of articles extended to journal editors.
>
> Providing an Exemplary Publishing Experience for Authors
> Overview of the services and surveys offered for authors.
>
> Blackwell Executive and Editorial Seminars
> Strategy seminars held in Europe for the first time this year.
>
>
> Dr. Donat Agosti
> Science Consultant
> Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History and  
> Naturmuseum der
> Burgergemeinde Bern
> Email: agosti at amnh.org
> Web: http://antbase.org
> Blog: http://biodivcontext.blogspot.com/
> Skype: agostileu
> CV: http://antbase.org/agosticv_2003.html
> Dalmaziquai 45
> 3005 Bern
> Switzerland
> +41-31-351 7152
>
>
>
>
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