Proposed update of BOAI definition of OA: Immediate and Permanent

[Update: See new definition of "Gratis" and "Libre" OA, 27/8/2008]

Note to Peter Suber and the original formulators of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (Re-posted from AmSci Forum 13 March 2005 [last year]).

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I would like to suggest that this is the right time, in light of recent developments, to update the BOAI definition of OA to make explicit what was already implicit in it: That OA must be now and must be permanent (not, for example, a feature that is provided for an instant, a century from now).

I think this was always perfectly obvious to anyone who read the BOAI definition of OA, but, as people will do, those with a vested interest in doing so found a loophole in the wording as it now stands. This is easily remediable by adding and announcing the obvious "immediate" (upon acceptance for publication) and "permanent" that should have been stated explicitly in the first place.

I think we overlooked this partly because we could not second-guess all conceivable self-serving construals by opponents of OA, but partly because we were trying to be as encouraging as possible about partial measures. Yet we were very careful, and should now be even moreso, not to allow the notion of "partial-OA" -- which is on a direct slippery-slope in which TA (toll-access) too would become construable as just another form of partial-OA!

Delayed free-access and temporary free-access are forms of access, to be sure -- and some is generally better than none, more is generally better than less -- but OA itself is only complete free access, immediate and permanent, for everyone and anyone, anytime, anywhere webwide. Otherwise all access would be OA, and the rest would just be a matter of degree (or, in the words of the wag, we would have agreed on our profession and we would now be merely haggling about the price!)

The BOAI definition was not etched in stone. 3+ years of experience have now suggested ways in which it can be clarified and optimized. This is a good time to make explicit what was already implicit in it, which is: OA is a trait of an article, not an evanescent state. Just as an article is OA if it is freely accessible online, an article is not OA if it is not freely accessible online, and hence an article that is not immediately accessible freely online is not OA and an article that is no longer freely accessible online is not OA (and never was -- within the limits of inductive uncertainty and the impossibility of clairvoyance, i.e., if the obsolescence was planned).

Being accessible might be a transitory state, but being OA has to be an all-or-none trait. Researchers don't need access to research eventually, or temporarily or sometimes or somewhere: All researchers need OA to all research, immediately, permanently, at all times, and everywhere (webwide). I suggest that we announce the following update to the passage that starts:

"By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting..."

to:

"By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, immediately and permanantly, permitting..."

Those with an interest in blocking or minimzing non-toll-based access will of course scream that BOAI is "moving the goalposts!" but I think anyone who thinks clearly and honestly about the interests of the research community and of research itself, and what was the fundamental rationale and motivation for OA in the first place, will see that this is merely highlighting what the goal has been all along, not moving it.

Stevan Harnad

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Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 03:30:27 +0000 (GMT)
From: Stevan Harnad
To: Richard Poynder
Subjectt: Poynder's Blog-Point

Hi Richard,

Re: http://poynder.blogspot.com/2005/03/what-is-open-access.html

One thing you missed: The "immediate" and "permanent" are and always were implicit in the BOAI definition of OA: An article is OA if and when it is freely accessible online. Obviously when it is not, it is not OA, so that excludes any embargo period, or any temporary "hook" period, withdrawn afterward!

The goal of OA is to make all articles OA: Not all articles OA after a while, or for a while. The answer to the question "Is this article OA?" has to be "yes", not "no". If an article can be OA some of the time, and not OA other times, then you may as well say an article can be OA to some people and not to other people (which is exactly what toll-access is: OA to those who can pay, non-OA to those who cannot).

Immediacy and permanence is as intrinsic to the fundamental rationale for OA as the full-text's being on-line and toll-free is. Researchers don't want to keep losing 6-12 months of research impact and progress, and call that Open Access.

Back Access is a cynical sop, any way you look at it, and a deplorable attempt to misuse both the principle of OA and the rationale underlying it.

I hope the Immediate Institutional Keystroke Policy as a default bottom line will put an end to any further inclination to try to use the Back-Access Ploy, for it immunizes institutions completely from any pressure for an embargo (the N-1 keystroles to deposit the metadata and full text are required, for internal purposes; the Nth OA keystroke is strongly encouraged but up to the author), leaving the dominoes to fall naturally (and anarchically) of their own accord. Sensible institutions won't even bother formalizing the Nth keystroke as optional, but will deal with it, if need be, on a case by case basis.


Stevan Harnad