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[Taxacom] Open access? & copyrights?

Chris Thompson xelaalex at cox.net
Wed Jun 5 06:45:09 CDT 2013 

Sorry, John,

mine was a private comment to you, but now that it is public,

the issue of copyright is linked to Open Access, in my opinion.

That is, simply I can not publish anything about a Natural History Museum 
specimen without getting permission from THE Natural History Museum and also 
including a statement that there are copyright restrictions on that 
information, etc.

To me that is not OPEN ACCESS, but I suppose in some sense technically it 
is, just requires higher level of legalese, etc.

AND YES, most of us (and that includes me) simply ignore these requirements.

Sorry, to distract from the open communications discusion, etc.

Sincerely,

Chris

from home

-----Original Message----- 
From: John Noyes
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 6:44 AM
To: 'Chris Thompson' ; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Open access?

Hi Chris,

I am not talking about copyright, but I do totally agree with the NHM 
retaining copyright of images. In most cases this has no affect whatsoever 
on the usage of these images. It is only when they are being used for 
commercial purposes the copyright comes into force (at least so far as I am 
aware).

Back to publishing :-- 

In reality, publishing open access can be virtually free. Strictly speaking 
all you need to produce a top quality electronic publication that is ICZN 
compliant is some sort of software that can produce high quality PDFs such 
as InDesign and an ISBN number. In my view, a work published electronically 
in this way can be vastly superior, in terms of quality (especially images), 
to a work that is printed on paper or even produced commercially as a PDF. 
It is even possible to include thousands of  good quality colour images at 
no extra cost!

Using this model the cost of publishing can be circumvented. Only those who 
are being "encouraged" (forced) by their employers or funding agencies to 
publish in high ranking journals lose out. Employers or funding agencies 
that insist on publication in high rating journals, should foot the costs of 
publishing in these journals. I do agree that some of these journals have at 
least one value-added aspect (such as XML mark up). However, most of us that 
produce revisionary or monographic works cannot afford that.

As I see it the high cost of publishing is a huge impediment to making good 
taxonomy cheaper and more easily available to all. This is especially the 
case now when publishing can cost virtually nothing.

John

John Noyes
Scientific Associate
Department of Life Sciences
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London SW7 5BD
UK
jsn at nhm.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0) 207 942 5594
Fax.: +44 (0) 207 942 5229

Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about 
chalcidoids and more):
www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Thompson [mailto:xelaalex at cox.net]
Sent: 05 June 2013 11:33
To: John Noyes
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Open access?

John:

Interesting comment.

Has THE Natural History Museum (old BMNH) changed its policy on copyright?

As you know years ago borrowers were required to agree and sign a statement 
saying if, for example, pictures were taken of BMNH specimens, etc., the 
rights to those images belonged to BMNH, etc.

Yes, no one ever paid much attention to those statements, but ...

Yes, on our side things are also unclear.

Years ago we were the United States National Museum, a FEDERAL organization.
As such, in our Constitution, all Federal work is without copyright (which 
was directly related to our founders objections to "Crown Rights," etc.).

But without public notice, about twenty years ago, the USNM became part of 
the Smithsonian, and the Smithsonian is NOT a Federal organization, and the 
Smithsonian does like the old BMNH claim copyright on its things, etc.

Oh, well ... An interesting and ever changing world. I hope things are well 
with you and yours,

Sincerely,

Chris

from home, but still officially at

Research Associate (Emeritus)
Department of Entomology
Smithsonian Institution
etc.
thompsonf at si.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: John Noyes
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 4:49 AM
To: 'Raymond Hoser Snakeman Snakebusters Reptile Parties' ; 
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Open access?

Hi,

I certainly think it would be good to specify that an electronic publication 
would meet the requirements of the ICZN as a published article ONLY if it 
was open access. It is a pity that this was not done when Article 8.5 was 
introduced - it is almost certainly too late now. As I see it, it was a 
fantastic opportunity was missed that would have made taxonomy hugely more 
accessible at a stroke. It would also have made it cheaper because the cost 
of publishing taxonomy (especially large-scale revisionary works of the sort 
that are badly needed) could have been reduced to virtually nill.

John

John Noyes
Scientific Associate
Department of Life Sciences
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London SW7 5BD
UK
jsn at nhm.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0) 207 942 5594
Fax.: +44 (0) 207 942 5229

Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about 
chalcidoids and more):
www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Raymond Hoser 
Snakeman Snakebusters Reptile Parties
Sent: 05 June 2013 00:37
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] Open access?

Dear all, in another thread Doug Yanega said

"Given that
no one should be doing taxonomy without access to the original literature, 
requiring that an author transcribe the pertinent data into ZooBank is not 
adding very much to their overall effort."

leads me to ask, should open access and online by a requirement of the next 
code of zoological nomenclature?

I know it would muck up the "business models" of certain journals, but what 
does everyone else here think?

All the best

Snakebusters? - Australia's best reptiles?

The only hands-on reptiles? shows that lets people hold the animals?.

Reptile parties?, events, courses
Phones: 9812 3322

0412 777 211


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