[Oa-italia] Surf Foundation Publisher Policy Survey

[Paola Gargiulo]

L'olandese Surf Foundation ha di recente pubblicato un'indagine rivolta a 47 
editori tradizionali(non Open Access) relativa alle loro politiche sul 
copyright.
L'indagine chiede inoltre agli editori cosa ne pensino della licenza per 
pubblicare (license to publish) che JISC e SURF hanno elaborato;
soprattutto cosa pensino dei principi affermati in questa licenza  secondo 
la quale:
• l'autore ritiene il copyright del suo lavoro e concede all'editore i 
diritti per la pubblicazione del lavoro
• l'autore puo' liberamente depositare l'articolo in un archivio di 
ricerca(cosi' definito in inglese research repository)  con embargo al 
massimo di 6 mesi.
Un terzo degli editori intervistati in questo studio gia' permettono il 
deposito negli archivi aperti (Vedi Romeo Sherpa) e la loro policy e' 
compatibile con i principi della Licenza to Publish. Piu' o meno la stessa 
precentuale usa una License to Publish invece che la cessione dei diritti. 

Per chi vuole leggersi lo studio
http://www.surffoundation.nl/download/LtP-final-report-dec07.pdf 

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Breve introduzione tratta dal sito di SURF
Traditional academic publishers on the move 

Traditional academic publishers are on the move regarding their policies on 
copyright and allowing the deposit of articles in a publicly accessible 
repository and thus becoming freely available. This is the result of an 
inquiry among a group of 47 traditional (non Open Access) publishers by 
SURFfoundation. The study asked publishers if they support the Principles 
formulated by SURFfoundation and JISC, regarding publishing an article in a 
traditional journal. The conclusion is that more and more traditional 
publishers support some or all of these Principles or are looking into 
changes in their current policies in line with these Principles. 


The Principles are an attempt to clarify and balance the relationship 
between the rights of authors and publishers, ensuring wider access to 
scholarly literature and bringing journals into compliance with a growing 
number of funder requirements. The main characteristics of the Principles 
are:
• The author retains copyright of his/her work, while granting the publisher 
the rights needed to publish the work
• The author may freely deposit the article in a research repository, with 
an embargo before public release of maximum six months.
One third of the publishers in the study already have a repository policy 
which is compatible with these Principles and the same amount of publishers 
use a licence to publish instead of copyright transfer. 

 

More and more organisations, like the Wellcome Trust and the European 
Research Council, require that peer-reviewed publications are being 
deposited in appropriate research repositories and made Open Access as soon 
as possible, at least within 6 months of publication. In December 2007, the 
ERC Scientific Council issued Guidelines for Open Access . With these 
guidelines they state that the free and efficient access to the vast and 
increasing quantities of information that result from scientific research 
(both publications and the primary data they are based upon), is the key for 
sustained progress. 

 

Publishers have to deal with these requirements and do so, more and more. 
SURFfoundation and JISC have not only drafted the Principles, but also a 
model Licence to Publish  in order to help the traditional publishers of 
journals and authors to move in the direction of open access. 

 

Of course the SURF-JISC Licence to Publish is not the only model meeting the 
Principles. It is only meant to serve as an example for traditional 
publishers who do not yet provide open access. In addition, it is a tool for 
authors who want to retain their copyright but do not know how to formulate 
it or do not want too much trouble having to research the possible 
alternatives. 

 

Wim Liebrand, director of SURFfoundation states: “This is a promising 
development. With the balanced approach JISC and SURF started, we attempted 
to bridge the gap between the traditional publishers and the Open Access 
movement. We hope many publishers will follow. We invite them to support the 
Licence to Publish and its Principles”. 

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Cordiali saluti
Paola