[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Why is there a need to post a list of OA articles?

Libraries need to know what items are available to their users. Automated systems are playing an increasing role in matching readers to articles.

In an increasingly typical scenario, a reader discovers an article of interest in a search engine- Google Scholar, Pubmed, Scopus, etc. The search engine have an interaction with an institutional link server to display to the user whether or not full text for the item can be found in their library. Google Scholar does this by uploading holdings files from the library; Scopus does this dynamically using an "image-based linking" technique.

Today, link servers in libraries that do not subscribe to your journal will tell their users that the OA article is not available in their library, because there is no way to determine automatically that the article is in fact OA. Potential readers will miss the article despite the fact that the author has paid an OA fee.

It's something to work on- I would love to hear from publishers that would like to see this type of access metadata more easily available to libraries.

Eric

At 9:16 PM -0400 4/16/06, Martin Frank wrote:
Why is there a need to post a list of OA articles in our
journals?  All one has to do is go to the TOC for the journal and
one sees an open tag (or "lock") on articles that are open and
free for reading.  APS does that for articles for which the
author has paid an OA fee.  Should we also do this for articles
that become free after an embargo period?  Should we post a list
of those articles somewhere other than in the journal's TOC?  I
am proud of how we function as a publisher, providing access in a
timely manner, facilitating the needs of patients to access
content, and encouraging the development of the scientific
enterprise in developing countries through collaboration with
Hinari and Agora.

marty

Martin Frank, Ph.D.
Executive Director
American Physiological Society
Email: mfrank@The-APS.org
APS Home Page: http://www.The-APS.org/