Probably the biggest victory to date for the OA
movement was a mandate
adopted by the U.S. NIH which stipulates that all the research funded by
the NIH (which amounts to approximately $29 billion annually) is now
made freely available through PubMed Central
(
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/). Now the OA movement in the U.S. is
trying to extend this type of mandate to all federal research funding
agencies with budgets over $100 million. Likewise, there are projects
underway in other countries to advocate for similar policies, including
an open letter recently announced which targets UK funding councils
(
http://tinyurl.com/64v9nvc). And finally, in addition to federal
research funding agencies, the OA movement also works with universities
to advocate for the adoption of institutional mandates which stipulate
that all research produced by those affiliated with a university or
faculty be made freely available (see OA policies adopted by several of
Harvard's Faculties
http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/).
So some progress, but much more to do!
Melissa
This approach should be quite productive in the long run.
"JSTOR is a not-for-profit service" to say nothing of most holders of
substantial archives. Nevertheless the expenses of digitizing information
and distributing it must be met.
Fred