Ann Okerson

The Missing Model: A “Circle of Gifts”

Abstract In spite of the search for electronic publishing models, there is apparently already early, energetic scholarly publishing on the networks. Without a g An effective scholar-based publishing system must recognize and support the widely divers forms of communication necessary for research and scholarship. It should not discriminate against nonlucrative projects or disciplines. It complements the paper-based scholarly efforts of university presses and of academic libraries, which are already beginning to provide networked access and archiving for university-generated scholarship. It creates a linked structure of scholars, societies, and academic institutions. It aims to fulfill another vital objective: retaining for the academy some ownership of its authored intellectual property. The Missing Model, fledgling and fuzzy, is alive and well and living on the Net. To thrive, the academy needs to thoughtfully nurture it. The Circle of Gifts concept formally entwines the scholarly community, research institutions, scholars, and learned societies in the age-old and time-honored enterprise in which ideas are shared, affordably, by the creators of the ideas.

‘The law is the true embodiment of everything that’s excellent’: mandates – a view from the United States

Effective as of 7 April 2008, scientific articles accepted for publication or published that draw upon work done with the financial support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States are subject to a sweeping new mandate – the first of its kind – that alters the circumstances under which they are published and read.This paper will review the mandate and the way American institutions are responding to it, after which we will consider mandates on the US scene and their downstream implications.