[Interpretationandmethods] Harvard to collect, disseminate scholarly articles for faculty

[Navdeep Mathur]

This is an interesting news item found at:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.14/99-fasvote.html




*Harvard to collect, disseminate scholarly articles for faculty*
Legislation designed to allow greater worldwide access

By Robert Mitchell

FAS Communications

In a move to disseminate faculty research and scholarship more broadly, the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted Tuesday (Feb. 12) to give the
University a worldwide license to make each faculty member's scholarly
articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided
that the articles are not sold for a profit.

In proposing the legislation, Stuart M. Shieber, a professor at FAS, said,
"There is no question that scholarly journals have historically allowed
scholars to distribute their research to audiences around the world. But,
the scholarly publishing system has become far more restrictive than it need
be. Many publishers will not even allow scholars to use and distribute their
own work. And, the cost of journals has risen to such astronomical levels
that many institutions and individuals have cancelled subscriptions, further
reducing the circulation of scholars' works.

"This is a large and very important step for scholars throughout the
country. It should be a very powerful message to the academic community that
we want and should have more control over how our work is used and
disseminated," added Shieber, James O. Welch Jr. and Virginia B. Welch
Professor of Computer Science.

"The goal of university research is the creation, dissemination, and
preservation of knowledge. At Harvard, where so much of our research is of
global significance, we have an essential responsibility to distribute the
fruits of our scholarship as widely as possible," said Provost Steven E.
Hyman. "Today's action in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will promote free
and open access to significant, ongoing research. It is a first step in the
creation of an open-access environment for current research that may one day
provide the widest possible dissemination of Harvard's distinguished
Faculties' work."

Harvard will take advantage of the license by hosting FAS faculty members'
scholarly articles in an open-access repository, making them available
worldwide for free. The faculty member will retain the copyright of the
article, subject to the University's license. The repository contents can be
made widely available to the public through such search engines such as
Google Scholar. Faculty members may request a waiver of the license for
particular articles where this is preferable. The new legislation does not
apply to articles completed before its adoption.

The repository, which will be supported and maintained by Harvard
University, will allow scholars and the general public from around the world
access to scholarly works of FAS faculty. This access will benefit scholars
at all research institutions, which have seen their ability to maintain
subscriptions to a full range of scholarly journals seriously compromised
over the past few years. Research centers in poorer countries have been
especially harmed by the access limitations caused by the high cost of many
journals, Shieber pointed out.

"Today's vote in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences," said Robert Darnton,
Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the University
Library, "addresses an issue that is of great concern to all of the
Faculties of the University. All of us face the same problems and all of us
can envision the public benefits of open access. Harvard Medical School, for
example, is already working with its faculty to comply with a congressional
mandate that articles based on funding from the National Institutes of
Health be openly accessible through PubMed Central. By working, as
individual faculties and together as a single University, we can all promote
the free communication of knowledge"

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