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MIT To Make All Faculty Publications Open Access

Posted by Soulskill on from the take-that-conyers dept.

Death Metal writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "If there were any doubt that open access publishing was setting off a bit of a power struggle, a decision made last week by the MIT faculty should put it to rest. Although most commercial academic publishers require that the authors of the works they publish sign all copyrights over to the journal, Congress recently mandated that all researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health retain the right to freely distribute their works one year after publication (several foundations have similar requirements). Since then, some publishers started fighting the trend, and a few members of Congress are reconsidering the mandate. Now, in a move that will undoubtedly redraw the battle lines, the faculty of MIT have unanimously voted to make any publications they produce open access."

9 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Darned Liberals by OldFish · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're setting America on a path to certain destruction. Why how's a good, god-fearing businessman gonna make a buck if he can't do it by reselling publicly funded publications???

    I think the businessmen have tried to close public access to NOAA data too.

    1. Re:Darned Liberals by Yamamato · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why was this modded troll? Did someone miss that whooshing sound in their ears?

  2. Re:Hats of for MIT by tecnico.hitos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unless the are copyright capitalist barbarians.

    --
    The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.
  3. Good arguments against open access? by Tragek · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a really hard time coming up with good arguments against open access publishing. Do they exist? Or are all arguments against flat out support of the publishers' business model?

  4. Re:Hats of for MIT by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, because I would have been devastated to see my kids attend MIT before this.

  5. Re:Hats of for MIT by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    The girls are much hotter at Stanford. Of course, given that you're a math geek, arrogant, and also a Slashdotter, that's unlikely to be a factor for you anyway.

  6. Re:Hats of for MIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Unless the are copyright capitalist barbarians.

    In which case they go to Harvard.

  7. Re:Hats of for MIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Might be? Have you ever worked with anyone from their program? They don't give out honorary degrees and simply passing their admissions process alone speaks quite a bit about a person's motivation. Based on the experience of my engineering career there are two schools which consistently graduate exceptional thinkers: MIT and Harvey Mudd.

  8. Re:Hats of for MIT by Chyeld · · Score: 2, Funny

    For a second there I could have sworn you said Harry Mudd and was going to ask what their rates for androids was.