Column: Als er 1 juridisch schaap over de open access-dam is … - Recht.nl

ab1630's bookmarks 2018-03-17

Summary:

Google English: "Column: If there is 1 legal sheep about the open access dam ...

Open access must be the standard by 2020, the European Union (EU) decided in 2016. This means that from the year mentioned all scientific publications created with the help of public funds must be freely accessible. Justly. I would like to go one step further and say that all publications made with public funds should not be made available to the public online . After all, it is idiotic if you have to pay for a non- scientific article written by an official or scientist. Or if a research report funded by a ministry would be behind a payment wall. That just can not be. 

Time is running out. We are already living in March 2018. Only a good 21 months to go to achieve the EU's target. Restricting myself to the legal domain, I already dare to claim that the EU's ambition for the Dutch legal domain is too ambitious. The lawyers will not make it. There is hardly any movement to be seen towards open access. And that is actually crazy when I look at the staffing of the editors of many legal journals. The editors of the Nederlands Juristenblad have one commercial lawyer, besides just publicly funded judges and scientists, the editors of Delikt and Delinkwent consist of 6 professors, four of the 7 editors of the JIN are financed with public money, the editors of Employment Law Annotations has 1 commercial lawyer, and so I can go on for a long time. And the authors in many legal journals often come from publicly funded institutions. 

No payment wall of this time. Now it is of course good that these publicly funded editors do what they do. In fact, it is their task to assess (and write) documents that contribute to the development of (Dutch) law and legal science. They have to do it and for that purpose space must be created within an appointment. It is also nice and good that people from legal practice contribute to this. After all, legal practice and legal science can not really be separated . But it is no longer of this time to put the work of these people behind a payment wall. And not only because it is not right because they are financed by public funds. It is certainly also about the visibility and the (re) use of the published documents , scientifically or otherwise. 

Open access becomes the norm. Yet I dare to predict that it is a matter of short time that open access will be the norm. Maybe a little more than 21 months, but not much longer. Especially now that a first legal journal has taken the courageous step and is ' flipping ' to open access. This means that the editors have decided to get behind the payment wall and to place the magazine freely accessible in the public domain. Online, though. A free magazine on paper is not a business model that lasts for a long time. This first magazine is Trema, the magazine of the Dutch Association for Judiciary. In the first digital editorial : 

"This is the first issue of Trema that is not released on paper. The future is suddenly very close. No more copy to put on the coffee table, but increased ease of use, for example because hyperlinks in articles can be made. Now that the digitization in KEI breaks through - or so it seemed - Trema can not lag behind. The potential reach of Trema therefore increases, and we hope the valuation will not lag behind. " 

As far as the latter is concerned, they have my appreciation! I did not think that this remarkable step in legal publishing country would come from this corner. I am already looking forward to the flipping editorial boards of the Nederlands Juristenblad, the JIN, Employment Law Annotations, the AB administrative law, ... 

Win-win-win-win-win. Of course, Trema has always been a magazine of the Dutch Association for Judiciary (NVVR) that was only printed by Sdu. That makes this flip easier to realize. However, I do not see any reason why the other magazines would not be able to do it. Of the millions of euros saved by the legal community in connection with subscription fees, own office activities and open access officers can be appointed. An open access journal must also be checked for d's and t's and the hyperlinks in the texts must continue to work. And of course the publication platform of the digital journals also needs maintenance. But even then the total expenditure on legal publications will be a fraction of what it is now and the legal community will keep money. A win-win-win-win-win situation: more publicity, more impact, more interaction, less money. Maybe with a higher quality. 

It will also be spring in the legal publishing country."

Link:

https://www.recht.nl/164785/column-als-er-1-juridisch-schaap-over-de-open-access-dam-is/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » ab1630's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.dutch oa.netherlands oa.europe oa.law oa.implementation oa.speed oa.oa2020 oa.partial oa.obstacles oa.policies

Date tagged:

03/17/2018, 17:19

Date published:

03/17/2018, 13:19