[ Open Content | Access ]

Nachdem den Verlockungen der Espresso-Maschine anstandslos nachgegeben wurde, die Fortsetzung des vorhin begonnenen Versuchs einer Zusammenfassung verschiedener zweckdienlicher Blogs und Websites zum Thema Urheberrecht / Open Access / wissenschaftliche Publikationen.

Das netbib-Weblog verweist etwa in dem Eintrag Open Access-Zeitschriften ...

... auf den Beitrag What Is the Sound of One E-Print Downloading? (über diesen Beitrag findet man via Link auch leicht den Zugang zum Archive for the 'Open Access' Category, das dann nicht "nur" sachdienliche Stellungnahmen, sondern auch zahlreiche Links in Sachen Institutional Repositories bietet).

Der Beitrag selbst bringt den Versuch einer Klassifizierung von Journals anhand eines Farbleitsystems:

To fully understand where things stand with journal access policies, we need to clarify and name the policies in use. While the below list may not be comprehensive, it attempts to provide a first-cut model for key journal access policies, adopting the now popular use of colors as a second form of shorthand for identifying the policy types.

1. Open Access journals (OA journals, color code: green): These journals provide free access to all articles and utilize a form of licensing that puts minimal restrictions on the use of articles, such as the Creative Commons Attribution License. Example: Biomedical Digital Libraries.
2. Free Access journals (FA journals, color code: cyan): These journals provide free access to all articles and utilize a variety of copyright statements (e.g., the journal copyright statement may grant liberal educational copying provisions), but they do not use a Creative Commons Attribution License or similar license. Example: The Public-Access Computer Systems Review.
3. Embargoed Access journals (EA journals, color code: yellow): These journals provide free access to all articles after a specified embargo period and typically utilize conventional copyright statements. Example: Learned Publishing.
4. Partial Access journals (PA journals, color code: orange): These journals provide free access to selected articles and typically utilize conventional copyright statements. Example: College & Research Libraries.
5. Restricted Access journals (RA journals, color code: red): These journals provide no free access to articles and typically utilize conventional copyright statements. Example: Library Administration and Management. (Available in electronic form from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text and other databases.)

Das böse Fazit:

In any case, the journal universe is not just green or red, and it’s a pity that we don’t know the breakdown of the spectrum (e.g., x number of green journals and y number of cyan journals), for that would give us a better handle on how the world has changed from the days when all journals were red journals.

In dem Text findet sich auch der Hinweis auf die Budapest Open Access Initiative, die (fast ist man versucht, außerhalb der Klammer das Wort natürlich zu setzen) eng mit der Soros-Stiftung Open Society Institutezusammenhängt. Die Forderung ist natürlich eine schöne:

For various reasons, this kind of free and unrestricted online availability, which we will call open access, has so far been limited to small portions of the journal literature. But even in these limited collections, many different initiatives have shown that open access is economically feasible, that it gives readers extraordinary power to find and make use of relevant literature, and that it gives authors and their works vast and measurable new visibility, readership, and impact. To secure these benefits for all, we call on all interested institutions and individuals to help open up access to the rest of this literature and remove the barriers, especially the price barriers, that stand in the way. The more who join the effort to advance this cause, the sooner we will all enjoy the benefits of open access.

Gute Sache soweit - und die Dringlichkeit zeigt sich u.a. schon an dem pikanten Umstand, dass einige der verlinkten Stellen in dieser Deklaration inzwischen ins "Leere" führen. Wichtig dann die folgende Aufforderung:

To achieve open access to scholarly journal literature, we recommend two complementary strategies.

1. Self-Archiving: First, scholars need the tools and assistance to deposit their refereed journal articles in open electronic archives, a practice commonly called, self-archiving. When these archives conform to standards created by the Open Archives Initiative, then search engines and other tools can treat the separate archives as one. Users then need not know which archives exist or where they are located in order to find and make use of their contents.
2. Open-access Journals: Second, scholars need the means to launch a new generation of journals committed to open access, and to help existing journals that elect to make the transition to open access. Because journal articles should be disseminated as widely as possible, these new journals will no longer invoke copyright to restrict access to and use of the material they publish. Instead they will use copyright and other tools to ensure permanent open access to all the articles they publish. Because price is a barrier to access, these new journals will not charge subscription or access fees, and will turn to other methods for covering their expenses. There are many alternative sources of funds for this purpose, including the foundations and governments that fund research, the universities and laboratories that employ researchers, endowments set up by discipline or institution, friends of the cause of open access, profits from the sale of add-ons to the basic texts, funds freed up by the demise or cancellation of journals charging traditional subscription or access fees, or even contributions from the researchers themselves. There is no need to favor one of these solutions over the others for all disciplines or nations, and no need to stop looking for other, creative alternatives.

Open access to peer-reviewed journal literature is the goal. Self-archiving (1.) and a new generation of open-access journals (2.) are the ways to attain this goal. They are not only direct and effective means to this end, they are within the reach of scholars themselves, immediately, and need not wait on changes brought about by markets or legislation. While we endorse the two strategies just outlined, we also encourage experimentation with further ways to make the transition from the present methods of dissemination to open access. Flexibility, experimentation, and adaptation to local circumstances are the best ways to assure that progress in diverse settings will be rapid, secure, and long-lived.

Noch einmal zurück zu DigitalKoans, wo sich übrigens auch betreffend "Institutional Repository Overviews" "A Brief Bibliography" findet. Der erwähnte Beitrag What Is the Sound of One E-Print Downloading? hat bislang drei Kommentare, auf die gesondert hinzuweisen ist (einer davon von Klaus Graf, der meint "DOAJ’s policy is misleading"; ein anderer von Stevan Harnad, der einen ausführlichen Plea for Chrononomic [?] Parsimony and Focus On What Really Matters einbringt).

Ein vorerst letzter Verweis: Die erwähnte Initiative des FWF beruft sich schließlich auf die Berlin Declaration, die anlässlich der Open Access Concerence 2003 in Berlin verfasst wurde. Der einleitende Hinweis lautet:

The signing of this declaration was preceded by a three-day conference in the Harnack House of the Max Planck Society in Berlin-Dahlem where leading, international experts discussed new ways of accessing scientific knowledge and cultural heritage via the Internet. For the first time ever, the Internet offers the possibility of making knowledge universally accessible. As a result, publishing practices and the system of quality assurance used thus far in the sciences and the humanities are expected to undergo considerable changes. In signing the "Berlin Declaration", the research organizations advocate consistently using the Internet for scientific communication and publishing. Their recommendations in favor of open access are directed not only at research institutions but also and to the same extent at cultural institutes such as libraries, archives, and museums.
Governments, universities, research institutions, funding agencies, foundations, libraries, museums, archives, learned societies and professional associations who share the vision expressed in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities are therefore invited to join the signatories that have already signed the Declaration.

Die Liste der Unterzeichner findet sich übrigens hier.

Wie sollen nun, dieser Deklaration zufolge, Beiträge im Sinne des Open Access beschaffen sein?

Open access contributions must satisfy two conditions:

1. The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship (community standards, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in an appropriate standard electronic format is deposited (and thus published) in at least one online repository using suitable technical standards (such as the Open Archive definitions) that is supported and maintained by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, inter operability, and long-term archiving.