I read the draft report for the A & M review (A&M Establishing a 21st Century Production Model) attached to the Pat's newsletter with great interest. Many thanks to Council for giving this an airing. I think it makes a very strong case for the "Taylor and Francis" option, which seems like it will achieve most of the society's objectives (digitisation of back issues, hybrid paper/digital printing, etc.) without extra costs or any additional burdening of (already burdened) staff and volunteers.
While understanding the logic of it, I was a little sad to see that open access publishing was ruled out as too resource-intensive to pursue (p. 17 of the report). Besides the general good of maximising public access, I think this model has a lot more going for it, including incentivising authors to contribute (because they know that post-publication they will still be able to access & distribute their own work). I wonder whether any of Archivaria's A* success is due to its being the one archives journal to take this route?
George Monbiot published an article attacking the evil's of academic publishing in today's (30 August) Guardian: http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/. Keen eyes will see that that link goes to the version on Monbiot's own website: perhaps if open access publishing is impossible, we could achieve something similar by ensuring that in any contract with an academic publisher we ensure that contributors retain rights to distribute their own work in this same way?
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Dear all,
The new ASA Council would like to express appreciation to the outgoing members of the Archives and Manuscripts (A&M) Editorial Board for supporting a high-quality and internationally respected journal. We recognise the considerable combined experience, intellect and dedication of these members and it is with sincere regret that Council acknowledges the resignation of the following Editorial Board members:
Karen Anderson, Toby Burrows, Joanne Evans, Michael Piggott, and Joanna Sassoon.
The new Council also acknowledges the interest of all ASA members in the future publication arrangements for Archives and Manuscripts therefore further information will be provided directly to members as soon as possible.
Regards,
Kylie Percival on behalf ASA Council
It appears from the AGM posting by Sue Coppin that the Society faces financial difficulties going forward, recording a loss on operations of almost $150K in the financial year 2010-2011. Possibly the issue of e-publication of A&M has been seen by Council within the larger picture of risk and financial uncertainty. So dies the vision of open access publication. Rightly or wrongly.
I agree that this does not diminish the responsibility of Council to reveal to members details of the contract signed with Taylor and Francis, particularly where contract detail impacts on the interests of members. Optimistically, this might initiate a dialog with members that might prove very productive. For example, I suspect that most members would forgo hard copy, if they could have free access to current and archive copy of A&M in electronic form, for as long as they are members of the Society. Production of A&M in hard copy format, is a loss making venture for the Society, something which might be be discontinued with guarantees about online access. Further, there are many scholarly e-serials and as a community of professionals, we have consistently argued that we can ensure electronic memory into the future.
Thanks to Karen, Toby, Joanne, Michael and Joanna for flying the flag of open access, along with everyone else who contributed to this thread. I believe that the hearts and minds of most members were with open access.
With the deal signed, we enter a new era with A&M. Like it or lump it, we will have to live with the outcome and do our best to make A&M successful in this new era.
Mark.
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Archives and Manuscripts: Editorial Board
Following Council’s recent decision about the future of Archives and Manuscripts, we have had to reconsider our position as members of the journal’s Editorial Board.
In view of this, we have no option but to resign from the Editorial Board, effective immediately.
Karen Anderson, Toby Burrows, Joanne Evans, Michael Piggott, Joanna Sassoon
18 October 2011
It is indeed a sad day when such an experienced and competent editorial board deems it necessary to resign in order to protest against the recent decision to give Archives and Manuscripts to Taylor and Francis. In my view open access alternatives were not given a legitimate hearing. The process in general also appears to have been decidedly undemocratic, even for members of the editorial board and judging on some of the comments aired on this site. Why were the board confronted with "commercial in confidence" restrictions? Why is the contract not available for all and sundry on the ASA website? What is there to hide? Nothing that I can think of. And whilst I am a strong supporter of open access, I am not wedded to it. What I am wedded to is that members should be given access to a full range of information and alternatives before decisions are made. This did not happen in my view in this instance. The decision to go with Taylor and Francis, and to require all authors to hand over their copyright in order to be published in any future edition of A&M, is the wrong one. There are undoubtedly many positives to the T&F decision - it is a shame that the negatives were so blatantly ignored.
Michael Organ
On behalf of the ASA President & Council,
I am pleased to inform readers of ArchivesLive! that there is a direct link on the front page of the ASA website, under Latest News, to the 'Archives & Manuscripts Announcement'.
This is an announcement to ASA members to inform them that a contract was signed on 12.10.11 between the ASA and Routledge Taylor & Francis for publication of the ASA Journal Archives & Manuscripts, commencing 1 January 2012.
ASA members were sent this announcement by direct personal email yesterday (13.10.11).
ASA website: http://www.archivists.org.au/
News item entitled: 'New publisher for Archives & Manuscripts'.
Louise Trott, ASA Vice President
Writers vs publishers - a poignant and relevant video - Open Access Week 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMIY_4t-DR0&feature=youtu.be
Michael
Hi all, so we're post the ASA Council meeting on 23rd september. Is there any news of whether or not decisions were made on the direction for eA&M?
barbara
Some more Open Access news on the internet today:
In its September 2011 meeting, the Faculty of Princeton University voted unanimously for a policy of open access to scholarly publications (https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/appel/open-access-scholarly-publ...):
Q: Would the proposed Taylor and Francis deal allow A&M authors to publish their own work in this way?
And, from John Wilbanks, a thoughtful piece on balancing the foreseeable and unforeseeable problems with Open Access publishing (http://del-fi.org/post/10730312976/unintended-consequences).
Q: did Council make a decision on this at their meeting last Friday? Will Council be signing up with Taylor and Francis this week?
For anyone who missed it, the Council's recent announcement answers my second question.
However I'd still be grateful for an answer to my first question: does the T&F contract require that A&M authors sign away their copyright? Does it allow authors to self-publish or self-archive (this model is known as "Green Open Access"?
Am probably running the risk of being totally flamed ;-) but here is an interesting blog post by a US academic on why he won't publish in pay to subscribe journals anymore (Via @richardlehane , thanks)
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/09/sharp-practice.html
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