because it was the topic of heated discussions earlier this year, including
quite a few comments about the integrity, openness, and
profit/not-for-profit status of JSTOR, I am pleased to note that--as both
Richard Jensen and I suggested would be quite possible if a straightforward
and thoughtful request were put to them directly--JSTOR has now created a
pilot program to provide access to the most active Wikipedia editors to
what appears to be the entirety of the JSTOR database. This looks to be the
result of laudable efforts by some members of the Wikimedia Foundation and
of JSTOR (in particular, Steven Walling of Wikimedia and Kristen Garlock of
JSTOR), all of whom deserve major credit for this welcome development.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/19/jstor-provides-free-access-to-wikipedi…
I also note that this is part of a general outreach effort on part of JSTOR
to provide access to unaffiliated individuals who need or even want it:
Wikipedia contributors beyond the pilot group can also take advantage of
growing access, as can readers. JSTOR provides free
access to Early Journal
Content and recently introduced Register & Read, an experimental program to
offer free, read-online access to individual scholars and researchers who
register for a MyJSTOR account. More information may be found at
about.jstor.org/individuals.
I have long felt JSTOR in particular was being unreasonably tarnished in
many online communities, including to some extent this one, and I would
suggest that this very welcome development reveals that JSTOR is quite
willing to work with many different kinds of groups who for various reasons
can't afford access to the archive.
I think this also shows that a balanced approach to the open access issue
can potentially be successful, without prohibiting nonprofits like JSTOR
from charging a reasonable fee for its significant services to institutions
that have long been accustomed to paying for scholarly work product of many
kinds. I very much hope this effort is successful for all the parties
concerned.
David
--
David Golumbia
dgolumbia(a)gmail.com