From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2018 03:42:32 +0000

Thanks, Ivy. But at the risk of being called a stickler again, I guess I’ll
just point out that the sentiment you’re expressing (basically, “let’s get
things as open as we can as soon as we can and avoid making the perfect the
enemy of the good”) is a pretty moderate one. The UC system’s expressed
position is much stronger and more categorical: “achieving a truly open
scholarly communication system (is a) moral imperative.” The difference
between those two positions isn’t a nitpicky semantic one or just a matter
of word choice; they look like fundamentally different stances.



As you pointed out, you’re just speaking for yourself, which of course is
all you can do. But since there seems to be quite a bit of daylight between
your expressed position and the one expressed in the UC statement, I’d
still be interested to know what the UC system means by “a truly open
scholarly communication system.” If achieving such a thing really is a
moral imperative—and if an organization as large and influential as UC is
actively working to make it happen—then dang, isn’t it important to be able
to say what its characteristics are, and how we’ll know when it’s been
achieved?



Is there someone at UC who can answer that question?



---

Rick Anderson

Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication

Marriott Library, University of Utah

Desk: (801) 587-9989

Cell: (801) 721-1687

[log in to unmask]





From: Ivy Anderson <[log in to unmask]>

Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2018 19:09:10 +0000

Hi Rick,



You’re such a stickler for language…  ;-)



Without wishing to assert that anything I say here represents the views of
the entirety of the University of California, since many hands went into
drafting this statement, and of course we are a large and diverse system –



We would like to see a scholarly publishing system emerge in which funding
for publication does not interfere with or impose barriers to dissemination
and re-use.  As a public institution that takes its public service mission
seriously, we believe the fruits of UC scholarship should be open to the
citizens and scholars of California, the nation, and the world.  Clearly
this won’t happen overnight, and certainly there are disciplines, genres,
and formats that present more challenges than others.  The statement we’ve
drafted refers specifically to the research journal literature, but like
many other institutions, we have experiments and initiatives underway in
the monographic space as well.   And while many consider open access more
feasible in the sciences than in non-STEM fields, making the humanities and
social sciences literature open is arguably even more important as a means
of informing public policy and stimulating intellectual inquiry.  So this
is just to say that we would hope that toll access publishing would
eventually – and sooner rather than later if we can marshal the collective
will – operate under a business model or models that are no longer
predicated on restricting and metering access.



So my answer is yes – we envision a world that puts an end to toll access
scholarly publishing.



But let’s also avoid the mistake of making the perfect the enemy of the
good – the more we can accomplish, the better, and the sooner, the better.



Ivy Anderson

Associate Executive Director & Director of Collections

California Digital Library

University of California, Office of the President

[log in to unmask]  |  http://cdlib.org



From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>

Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2018 03:17:34 +0000

This is really interesting, Ivy – thanks for sharing it.



One question: I notice the phrase “the moral imperative of achieving a
truly open scholarly communication system.” Can you tell us how UC defines
a “truly open scholarly communication system”? Or to put it another way,
when that goal has been achieved, what will the scholarly communication
system look like? (For example, will there still be any role at all for
toll-access publishing, or will it have gone away entirely?)



---

Rick Anderson

Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication

Marriott Library, University of Utah

Desk: (801) 587-9989

Cell: (801) 721-1687

[log in to unmask]





From: Ivy Anderson <[log in to unmask]>

Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 17:37:46 +0000

List members may be interested in this statement from the University of
California, issued today:

Over the past year, the University of California’s Systemwide Library and
Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC), in partnership with our
university libraries and the systemwide academic senate’s Committee on
Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC), has been considering the
twin challenges of journal affordability and the moral imperative of
achieving a truly open scholarly communication system.  Making the research
produced at the University of California open to the world has long been an
important goal at UC, as evidenced by the strong Open Access policies
enacted at the campus and systemwide level, our many initiatives to create
open access publishing options for UC authors (including CDL’s eScholarship
publishing service and our early open access pilots with third party
publishers), and most recently, a Declaration of Rights and Principles to
Transform Scholarly Communication promulgated by UCOLASC.

We believe it is time to take a further step along this road.

http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/2018/06/championing-change-in-
journal-negotiations/



Ivy Anderson

Associate Executive Director & Director of Collections

California Digital Library

University of California, Office of the President

[log in to unmask]  |  http://cdlib.org