** Apologies for Cross-Posting **

Dear all,

Tempting as it is to keep chattering about pit-bulls and commercial
venality

    http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070122/full/445347a.html

could we perhaps refocus on something far, far more important and substantive
that is going on at the moment? This is where today's real historic Open
Access (OA) developments are transpiring:

    http://www.ec-petition.eu/

The petition in support of the European Commission's Proposal to
mandate OA self-archiving has already amassed 13,000 signatures in 13
days and is still growing. It is being signed not only by individual
grassroots researchers but by universities, learned societies, scientific
academies:

    Rectors/principals of research organisations (51)
    Heads of university/research institution departments or schools (44)
    International societies or research-based organisations (38)
    National societies or research-based organisations (35)
    Research-based or research-centred charities/foundations (21)
    National or international research funding bodies (8)
    National academies (3)
    Rectors' Conferences/University associations (2)
    Government departments (2)

The petition is also being signed by institutional libraries, research
organisations and publishers:

    Institutional libraries (144)
    R&D-based companies (66)
    Publishers (30)
    International or national library organisations (26)
    National ICT organisations (11)
    Museums (research-based) (2)

Please consult http://www.ec-petition.eu/ as these figures are
changing by the minute. (And if you or your organisation support the OA
mandate proposals, please sign too.)

In addition to this petition in support of proposed mandates (of which
the EC's is one, but of course the United States has a huge proposed
mandate pending too: the FRPAA), the number of actually adopted mandates
is growing steadily too (and will no doubt be accelerated by the
growth of the EC petition):

ROARMAP now lists 58 registered OA policies, 27 mandates (21 adopted,
6 proposed)

    http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php

11 institutional and departmental mandates:

    AUSTRALIA* institutional-mandate Queensland U. Technology
    AUSTRALIA* institutional-mandate U. Tasmania
    EUROPE* institutional-mandate CERN: European Org Nuclear Res
    INDIA* institutional-mandate Nat Inst Tech Rourkela
    INDIA* institutional-mandate Bharathidasan U.
    PORTUGAL* institutional-mandate Universidade do Minho
    SWITZERLAND* institutional-mandate U. Zurich
    AUSTRALIA* departmental-mandate U. Tasmania School of Computing
    FRANCE* departmental-mandate Lab Psych Neurosci Cognitives
    UNITED KINGDOM* departmental-mandate U Southampton Dept ECS
    UNITED KINGDOM* departmental-mandate Brunel Univ Sch Info Sys Comp Maths

10 funder mandates:

    AUSTRALIA* funder-mandate Australian Res Cncl
    AUSTRALIA* funder-mandate National Health and Medical Res Cncl
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Arthritis Res Foundation
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Biotech Bio Sci Res Cncl (BBSRC)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Chief Sci Off (Scottish Exec Health)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Economic and Social Res Cncl (ESRC)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Medical Res Cncl (MRC)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate National Environmental Res Cncl (NERC)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Particle Phys & Astron Res Cncl (PPARC)
    UNITED KINGDOM* funder-mandate Wellcome Trust

6 funder mandate proposals:

    CANADA* proposed funder-mandate  Can Insts Health Res (CIHR)
    EUROPE* proposed funder-mandate  European Res Advisory Board (EURAB)
    EUROPE* proposed funder-mandate  European Res Cncl (ERC)
    EUROPE* proposed funder-mandate European Commission
    UNITED STATES* proposed funder-mandate Fed Res Pub Access Act (FRPAA)
    UNITED STATES* proposed funder-mandate  Nat Insts  Health (NIH)

And the FRPAA proposal already has the support of most of the US Universities'
presidents and provosts:

    http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/index.html

So let us accelerate OA's now-unstoppable progress toward the optimal and
inevitable. The sterile debates of the past are behind us.

Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html