Open Access

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BLOGS
Publishing Archaeology


The Alexandria Archive Institute

has developed the following:
Welcome to Open Context (http://www.opencontext.org/), a free, open access resource for the electronic publication of primary field research from archaeology and related disciplines. Open Context provides an integrated framework for users to search, explore, analyze, compare and tag items from diverse field projects and collections.


OpenDOAR
is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories http://www.opendoar.org/. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories.
[note: not an easy database of links to search in terms of focusing into Andean Archaeology, but may be somewhat useful]

DISCUSSION:

Clark Erickson

Feb. 7, 2008
I strongly encourage Andeanists and Amazonianists to make their old and new publications available online as pdf files on their personal and institutional homepages. I also think that everyone should submit copies to QUIPU or some other institution that maintains these files for the public in a central location. With availability of Adobe Acrobat, the ability of xerox machines to automatically generate PDF text files, and the megabytes of server space given to most scholars by their institutions, I can't understand why all Andean literature is not on line. Those that worry about copyright, journal policies, and publishers can ethically address this by establishing their own "moving wall." If we want to promote our Andean and Amazonian research to future generations, we'll need to be better at publicizing it and making it available to undergrads, graduate students, the public, and fellow colleagues.

Monica Barnes

Feb. 15, 2008
I am writing this message in response to Clark Erickson's exhortation that scholars re-publish all of their work on-line, granting everyone access for free, regardless of copyright status. When a scholar publishes in an on-line or print journal, copyright often resides with the journal, or the institution that sponsors it, not with the author. The author may, or may not, have signed an agreement to this effect. Many journals, especially those sponsored by professional societies, grant blanket permission to authors to re-publish their own work, including on-line postings on their own websites, or those of their institutions. In these cases there are no problems. However, for-profit journals, archives with financially valuable collections, and book publishers sometimes police copyright violations. An author may feel that he has the moral high ground in some absolute sense, but he or she could still be legally vulnerable. I am not a lawyer, but I do deal frequently with intellectual property issues, not just in relation to the journals I edit, but in the art world, as well, so please take my comments with that caveat in mind.
Under some circumstances, violation of copyright can leave an individual liable to large punitive damages and court costs that would represent personal financial disaster. These damages can be out-of-proportion to the copyright holder's actual loss of revenue. The are circumstances under which the posting of copyright material is a criminal act (Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92, Chapter 5, Section 506).
If one posts material protected by copyright on an institutional website without the copyright holder's consent, potentially one could expose that institution to liability. This may be unlikely, but it is possible. If one decides to go ahead and violate copyright, one should understand the financial risks one is taking on behalf of oneself and of one's institution. I encourage scholars to read the Copyright Law for themselves [ ]http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
In my experience, even when automatic re-publication rights are not given, it is often possible to get formal, written permission to republish for free, or for a small fee. In such cases, there should also be no problems.
There are other ways of avoiding copyright problems. One is to publish only in open-access, on-line journals in the first place. However, these are often highly specialized, or largely or wholly written in languages other than English. For archaeology see [ ]http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=subject&cpid=12 They may not meet the needs of scholars based in the United States and Canada who are working towards tenure or promotion, or who need to make their work available to students and colleagues in English, or whose work does not fit well into available specialized journals. Some open-access journals, particularly in the hard sciences, charge authors or their institutions, rather than readers, for the open-access services [ ]http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/ I suspect this financial model would not be acceptable to archaeologists who are not accustomed to pay fees in order to publish their work.
Another approach is to avoid established journals altogether and self-publish on the Internet. However, the pitfalls to this approach exceed those of publishing in open-access, on-line journals. I believe that readers and authors often fail to recognize that a great deal of work and money is necessary to turn an imperfect draft into a good published paper. A large number of people-editors, peer reviewers, illustrators, lay-out artists, administrators, computer technicians, and print-shop workers are usually involved. Their fine work must be paid for somehow. As authors make their work freely available on-line it becomes more and more difficult to support formal publication.
While I believe that the dissemination of unedited and un-reviewed work has its place, and is a valid exercise of freedom of speech, its quality cannot be guaranteed. Reader beware! We see this already with large portions of the Internet dealing with medical issues, politics, etc. If a majority of scholars decide to self-publish, a fairly dependable quality control system which has evolved over the past two hundred and fifty years will soon crumble. Scientific reliability will no longer be as high as it generally is today. The choice is ultimately ours, but we should make it with open eyes. Monica Barnes

Feb.16, 2008
Here is our Andean Past policy on re-publication. It is one of the most liberal.
"Copyright for Andean Past resides with the Cornell University Latin American Studies Program unless a specific portion, for example, an illustration, is noted as copyrighted by another party. Authors may re-publish their Andean Past articles, obituaries, or reports, in English or in translation, in print, or in electronic format, provided that at least one year has elapsed since the original publication in Andean Past, that prior publication in Andean Past is indicated in the re-publication, that Cornell LASP's copyright is acknowledged, and that the editors of Andean Past are notified of the re-publication. If a portion of an article is copyrighted by a third party authors must request specific written permission from that party to republish. This includes on-line postings in electronic format."

Feb.19, 2008 Re-reading Clark's message for about the tenth time, I realize I may be misinterpreting him. If so, Clark, I apologize. Perhaps by his "moving wall" comment (see Jstor policies), he means we should only release our articles when copyright is clear. Clarification, Clark?

Nicholas Tripcevich

Feb.19, 2008 Interesting response from Monica Barnes. I’m no expert on this stuff but the recent decision by Harvard is precedent setting and is a big boost for open access publication
In case you missed the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/books/12publ.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=harvard+scholarly&st=nyt&oref=slogin
The decision by the faculty was “YES!” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/arts/14arts-HARVARDRESEA_BRF.html?scp=4&sq=harvard+scholarly&st=nyt
PJK- See also: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/02/text-of-harvard-policy.html


Patricia Knobloch


My Initial Inquiry:
> 02/15/08 2:50 PM >>>
My colleagues are discussing the copyright issue of loading their published articles on servers (usually at universities) and then sending the links to fellow colleagues. Is this fair use? Is having such links listed on one's web page illegal? There is obviously no money being charged, though perhaps the original publisher might argue that they are losing money from their reprints business.
Pat Knobloch
Question submitted at 14:50 on 2/15/08.

The Reply (only partially answered my question):
Posting the url to someone's website is not a copyright issue at all. If you actually post the contents (text or images) from someone's website without permission it would be a copyright violation.
sw
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