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Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the step-in-the-up-direction dept.

Vooch writes "Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted a policy this evening that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online." I may not be smart enough to go to college, but at least I can pretend to have a Harvard eduction. I don't think that will be enough to get a gig as a Simpsons writer.

4 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Do you mean education? by mysqlbytes · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Harvard eduction?? Some of us learn english proper!

  2. Not a bad idea by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One of my major frustrations is how it's very difficult to find serious scholarship outside of a certain number of journals, all of which require expensive subscriptions. It severely limits my ability to make a point on, say, evolutionary biology if I cannot cite and link to a peer-reviewed paper on said subject.

    Hopefully, we'll be able to see some more of this sort of thing in the future.

    --
    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
    A stately pleasure dome decree
  3. Eduction? by timelorde · · Score: 5, Interesting


    ... but at least I can pretend to have a Harvard eduction.

    I was all set to make a snide comment about the esteemed Mr. Taco's spelling and/or typing abilities, perhaps combined with a Billy Gates Harvard dropout reference, but then I Googled "eduction":

    Eduction

    *Sigh* I am NOT smarter than a fifth grader.

  4. It's *BIG*! by hawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The importance of this *cannot* be understated.

    Junior faculty, in particular, are currently *forced* to publish in the "best" journal they can, with the bulk of those being the "sign it over" variety. To publish in a lesser journal is to risk tenure.

    Now, suddenly, the University is providing a new list of top journals, and tenure will come from posting to the rest of those.

    The academic publishing industry is a dinosaur in desperate need of elimination. It charges tens of thousands of dollars per school for journals that would be more useful as web sites--, not and available several months earlier. As it exists, journals are for the benefit of the publishing companies, not the world at large, academia, or the authors. The economic model is that the faculty write, are paid nothing, and the libraries pay huge fees to the publishing houses.

    Will the publishers react to open up? I doubt it; they can't.

    The *real* result of this will be top articles going to online journals, which will first rival and then displace the printed journals. This is a good thing for everyone except the publishing houses.

    hawk, formerly junior faculty but now back in practice and paid well enough that *his* kids can go to school, too