New Initiatives for Electronic Scholarly Publishing: Academic Information Sources on the Internet
Abstract
This paper will trace the evolution of scholarly communication from the 17th century up to electronic journals, e-prints, e-scripts, electronic theses and dissertations and other digital collections of grey literature that emerge, with different degrees of acceptance in several disciplines, in the context of the new publishing models of the present day. The "open access or archiving/depositing" of electronic copies of scientific and scholarly research papers, theses and dissertations and other academic materials into networked servers, aims to ensure the widest possible dissemination of their contents by making them freely available on the public Internet, facilitating full use by readers without financial, legal or technical barriers, other then those related with gaining access to the Internet itself. The free and unrestricted online availability of this literature gives readers an opportunity to find and make use of relevant literature for the advancement of science and technology. From the point of view of authors, open archiving brings increased visibility and widens the readership and impact of their research work. For researchers in poorly resource organizations and/or countries, access to this open archive material has great potential value, as it facilitates the retrieval of research results through the - Internet. At the same time, it also allows scientists in these organizations/countries to participate in the development of the global knowledge base. The paper will outline the strategic factors that impact on the acceptance of these scholarly materials, available through "open access or archiving/depositing". Several international initiatives aiming at the creation of a global network of cross-searchable research materials are underway. Some of the more relevant ones will be reviewed. The impact that the availability of these novel scholarly materials is having, on changing roles and responsibilities of information managers, will also be highlighted.7
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADP014049
Entities
People
- Ana M. Correia
Organizations
- NOVA University Lisbon