Re: OA in Legal Publishing: Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

This makes eminently good sense inasmuch as (1) articles 
published in law journals are not peer reviewed (but simply 
accepted or rejected by the student editors who manage the 
journals) and hence law journals avoid the expense of managing a 
peer-review system and (2), if I am not mistaken, whatever 
copyediting is done is done by students also, serving as unpaid 
laborers (but gaining some academic benefits from doing so). In 
fact, this is so obviously a Good Thing, one wonders why it 
wasn't done years ago. Need it always take a recession for people 
to examine what needless costs are built into the system? Let's 
hear it for all the trees saved!

P.S. One hears that some of the most authoritative and important 
new legal publishing in short form is now being done by leading 
scholars through blogs. Are librarians thinking about ways of 
preserving this elusive literature?

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


>Listmembers may be interested in the "Durham Statement on Open
>Access to Legal Scholarship,"
>
>http://legalresearchplus.com/2009/02/20/durham-statement-on-open-access-to-legal-scholarship/
>
>issued earlier this month, and signed by the directors of many of
>the largest U.S. law libraries.  Here is the paragraph
>identifying the "objective" of the statement:
>
>Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship 11 February
>2009
>
>Objective: The undersigned believe that it will benefit legal
>education and improve the dissemination of legal scholarly
>information if law schools commit to making the legal scholarship
>they publish available in stable, open, digital formats in place
>of print. To accomplish this end, law schools should commit to
>making agreed-upon stable, open, digital formats, rather than
>print, the preferable formats for legal scholarship. If stable,
>open, digital formats are available, law schools should stop
>publishing law journals in print and law libraries should stop
>acquiring print law journals. We believe that, in addition to
>their other benefits, these changes are particularly timely in
>light of the financial challenges currently facing many law
>schools.
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Robert C. Richards, Jr., J.D.*, M.S.L.I.S., M.A.
>Philadelphia, PA
>richards1000@comcast.net
>http://home.comcast.net/~richards1000/LegalInformationSystemsBibliography.htm
>* Member New York bar, retired status.
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~