The Entire University of California System went Open Access » Cyborgology

abernard102@gmail.com 2013-08-10

Summary:

"As someone working out of a Science and Technology Studies (STS) Department, I was proud to see that Dr. Chris Kelty (Author of Two Bits) had just won a major battle for open access. Kelty is an excellent example of the kind of scholar that reflexively applies the findings of his scholarship to the everyday concerns of his job. As an Associate Professor of Information Studies at UCLA, he studies open source communities and concepts of responsibility in scientific research. As the chair of the UC University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC), he just spearheaded one of the largest windfalls for open access publishing. On July 24, 2013 the University of California Senate approved a state-wide Open Access Policy that will, according to the press release, make all 'future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC… available to the public at no charge.'  This is a huge step forward for the Open Access movement ... Perhaps the more important question is, do sheer numbers matter at all? If nine out of ten journals were  open tomorrow, but everyone was still striving to publish in the one prestigious, privately-owned journal, should we call that progress? I’m not totally convinced such a scenario would even be possible, but as a thought experiment it highlights one important fact: the OA movement isn’t necessarily about any one journal, or even the publishing industry- its about competing notions of what publishing rigorous inquiry is supposed to accomplish and what role it plays in society ... Just like organic produce and sweatshop-free clothes, open access journals can be more expensive and less compatible with your everyday life, than the conventional, corporate, standard. Its one of the brilliant inventions of late-Capitalism: ethical decisions are sold at a premium. That is why, as I’ve already stated, I think the tactic, more than the impact factor (pun intended), is more newsworthy here. These policy changes make it much easier (if not effortless) for younger professionals to make the right decision. And while today’s tenure committees may still look for those top-tier journals owned by Elsevier, tomorrow’s committees (who led the charge for OA) might not. Then there’s the pure and simple fact that with the freeing up of access to journal content, new organization forms outside of traditional academic positions are possible. Organizations that do not need millions of dollars to buy access to their own published research.  The exact process by which UC faculty comply with this new OA policy is worth a look, although it isn’t particularly unique. over a hundred other individual universities have similar OA policies in place. It works by effectively flipping the status quo from 'seek out open access' to 'opt out' of open access. There are some that think the opt-out is too easy (see the last bullet point below) but  I think it strikes a nice balance between an individual scholar’s control over her work, and the gentle tyranny of bureaucratic standards that are so effective at changing day-to-day life. Again, I don’t think this is about getting individual articles out into the public per se, so much as it is a very big and loud statement about how scholarship should be done.  You can read about the specifics of the policy in their FAQThere are lots of great discussions going on about this decision and OA in general as of late, here are some links  ..."

Link:

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/08/09/the-entire-university-of-california-system-went-open-access/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.comment oa.mandates oa.ir oa.u.california oa.policies

Date tagged:

08/10/2013, 17:23

Date published:

08/10/2013, 13:23