Publisher author agreements

Open access: An examination (as noted on the blog DigitalKoans) of the publisher author agreements statistics shows 72% permit some form of self-archiving.

According to today's SHERPA/RoMEO statistics, 36% of the 308 included publishers are green ("can archive pre-print and post-print"), 24% are blue ("can archive post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing)"), 11% are yellow ("can archive pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing)"), and 28% are white ("archiving not formally supported").
...
Much progress has been made in the area of author agreements, but authors must still pay careful attention to the details of agreements, which vary considerably by publisher. The SHERPA/RoMEO—Publisher Copyright Policies & Self-Archiving database is a very useful and important tool and users should actively participate in refining this database; however, authors are well advised not to stop at the summary information presented there and to go to the agreement itself (if available). It would be very helpful if a set of standard author agreements that covered the major variations could be developed and put into use by the publishing industry.

Bill requiring open access for NIH-funded research moving through Congress

From the August issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter: This issue takes a close look at a bill moving through Congress that would require open access for NIH-funded research. The round-up section briefly notes 79 OA developments from July.
Posted by Peter Suber at 8/02/2007 10:17:00 AM. (from Open Access News)