Open Access: COAR Responds to STM Publishing Association’s Statement on Embargo Periods

Here’s the Full Text Reply Published Online Today by the COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories):

In May 2014, the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and several international organizations published a statement supporting the “immediate, barrier free access to and reuse of scholarly articles”. Since then, a number of other organizations have endorsed this statement.
COAR strongly supports the “green road” for open access by means of the immediate deposit of published articles into open access (OA) repositories, with short or no embargo periods. Repeated claims by some publishers and their representatives that immediate access to articles via OA repositories will have a negative impact on their subscriptions have not been substantiated by evidence.
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COAR is keenly aware of the need for appropriate financial support for scholarly communication. [infoDOCKET emphasis] However, it is increasingly clear that the article-processing fee model favoured by many commercial publishers, while suitable for some, cannot scale globally and will ultimately result in disadvantaging a large number of researchers who cannot afford to pay. The green road offers a sustainable global approach for OA in which all countries and regions can participate.

Direct to Complete COAR Reply
Note 2: Full Text & Signatories of “Embargo Period” Statement (May 14, 2014)

• COAR: Confederation of Open Access Repositories
• EIFL: Electronic Information for Libraries
• LIBER: Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche – Association of European Research Libraries
• National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• OpenAIRE: Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe
• SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, USA
• Research Libraries of the United Kingdom
• Coaliton for Action “Copyright for Education and Research” (Aktionsbündnis “Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft”), Germany
• Australian National University
• AOASG: Australian Open Access Support Group
• INRIA: Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, France
• NEREUS: Network of European Libraries in Economics and Social Sciences
• Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, USA

Note: Here’s the Complete STM (International Association of Science, Technical, and Medical Publishers Association) Response posted on May 28, 2014.

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, Open Access, Publishing