Peter Suber - Google+ - LERU statements on open access and open data "The League…

"'The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has launched two statements on the importance of Open Scholarship: ‘Open Access to Research Publications’ and ‘Open Research Data’.' [1] Statement on OA for research publications http://www.leru.org/files/general/Open%20Access%20to%20Research%20Publications-FINAL.pdf   [2]  Statement on open research data http://www.leru.org/files/general/Open%20Access%20to%20Research%20Data-FINALdocx.pdf Comment: Unfortunately, the statement on OA for research publications recommends that universities adopt loophole mandates. In LERU's words (with my italics for the loophole), 'researchers [should] agree [on] an institutional mandate where, copyright permissions allowing, all research outputs from the institution are deposited in Open Access in the institutional repository.' LERU doesn't seem to be aware that university policies can easily close the loophole by retaining the rights needed to authorize OA. More than 30 institutions since 2008 have done so, and the methods for doing so are carefully described in the guide to good practices for university OA policies that Stuart Shieber and I released in October. http://bit.ly/goodoa  The guide has been endorsed by several European organizations that should carry weight with LERU, such as the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), Enabling Open Scholarship (EOS), the UK Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG), and SPARC Europe."