: ?layers of gated stuff and the whole community has to figure this out together and what it looks like.?

? Andy Guess <mailto:andy.guess@insidehighered.com> 


Comments


Will We See the Usual Harvard Bandwagon Effect


I mean that in a good way. While Harvard?s open access vote isn?t going to revolutionize the OA movement in this country, if what usually happens when Harvard does something first does happen, then I would expect that most of the Ivies and a dozen other selective liberal arts colleges will also vote to create similar ?opt-out? plans for adding faculty research articles (just liberal arts or will one institution take the much bolder step of moving into the STM domain?)to their repositories. Then again, maybe OA policies aren?t as newsworthy or sexy as tuition and financial aid reforms. Seriously though, when you combine happened at Harvard yesterday with the recent NIH legislation, it looks like the OA movement has a much better chance to progress in our higher education system.

stevenb <http://stevenbell.info> , associate university librarian, at 9:30 am EST on February 13, 2008


Academic equivalent of relaxed-fit jeans


This is the faculty equivalent of grade inflation (or relaxed-fit jeans). If you?re Harvard faculty, you can deposit your research in their library depository and have it available under the Harvard imprimatur. No peer review necessary. Why submit to peer review? Why thin that waist?

Dean, at 9:30 am EST on February 13, 2008

I gotta ask, aren?t we already enjoying an overabundance of blogs, wikis, and fansites?

Obtuse regional CLA professor, at 10:25 am EST on February 13, 2008


Points in Questions


Isn?t making information flow more freely in all ways is the job of top universities in the 21st C? (And, is Harvard making it clear that those at the top who have access to more if not all directions that information and learning may travel have an ethical responsibility to share it openly?)

If this is not mostly an academic understanding of the information and learning realities in cyberspace, then is it a smart way for Harvard to advertise its brand?

Is it possible that we can build anew our universities and schools with our best ideas on institutional websites to express the research and thinking there ?

Will Hochman

Will Hochman <http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html> , Associate Professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University, at 11:00 am EST on February 13, 2008


Cop Out


As a social science journal editor, I note that submitted publications by Yale, Harvard, Stanford professors are no longer judged highly sufficent at rates they were 15 or 20 years ago?in fact, they seem to be rejected at higher rates than mid-range state universities. Harvard?s self-serving move weakens standards of peer review processes and presumes that any garbage Harvard profs write would have been worthy of publication.

J.L., at 12:45 pm EST on February 13, 2008

I will be duly impressed when Harvard University Press decides to put all of its books online for free or when the FAS call for all their books to go online for free. Let us have the Loeb Classical Library downloadable, no?

DW, at 2:50 pm EST on February 13, 2008


Open up the Pocketbook, too


I am not opposed to the Harvard policy if the benefits are truly what the Harvard University Librarian states to be the case ? more sales of monographs. For many young scholars publishing their works has become more troublesome and tenure committees in some areas are asking for more than one monograph for promotion. Of course, these monographs might be digital with a print-on-demand option.

In many ways this policy also underscores the need for University Presses to work with their libraries to foster the best possible solution for the age of accessible scholarship and distribution. Posting a paper on an institutional repository doesn?t always mean that it has been peer-reviewed or presented in a way that allows for permanence in citation. The Harvard policy does at least allow an environment in which to work out many issues that will come up including how these postings will alter peer review. Will the Repository in effect become the Journal of Harvard University Research? If other universities follow, will the new environment speed up a focus on rich meta-data creation to allow for a virtual, consolidated site of academic research that is fully searchable and intuitive.

Harvard University has now taken on the burden that academic publishers have for ages ? delivering timely, peer-reviewed research, that is suited to customers? (faculty and researchers) needs. There will be a large cost to this burden, but will the cost benefit the entire scholarly communication system by reducing the overall price of scholarship? One could envision a system that disables peer-review in certain fields due to open access postings. The university then must assume all the functional roles (including vetting, formatting, fact checking, etc.) of publishing, not just a few (posting and distribution).

Further, this policy underscores that lack of relevance many scholars have had for their institutional repositories. Scholars are not posting their works to the repositories. Does Harvard?s policy provide the support mechanisms to help faculty post their research? As a publisher, I am well aware of the need to provide authors with services to get their works published in a timely fashion.

Finally, is the Harvard?s policy a branding initiative more than anything else? In a very competitive global market, having open access to Harvard scholars? works is an invaluable marketing tool. Therefore, I would assume that other universities will have to follow suit in some way. Those schools who have the funding pools for these repositories will now be able to move their research to the desktops of global consumers. Distance education opportunities and other academic programs will be sensible add-ons.

Implementing the plan will now be watched by millions and may cost that much, too.

Thomas Bacher, Director at Purdue University Press, at 5:10 pm EST on February 13, 2008

  ? Copyright 2008 Inside Higher Ed

 

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