Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

Folks — important news on Research Councils UK’s new draft open access policy.  A while back I wrote to RCUK asking when the deadline for submissions is, and I did eventually hear back from Jane Wakefield, Press and Communications Manager.  The deadline is Tuesday 10th April — not today, as I’d originally thought thanks to a game of Chinese whispers.

So please, folks: if you care about yourself, your friends and colleagues, your doctors and your kids’ teachers having access to research funded in the UK, read the draft policy (it’s only six very clear pages) and email your comments to communications@rcuk.ac.uk with the subject “Open Access Feedback”.  There will not be a better chance to influence open-access policy in the UK for years.

Here are some other responses from around the Web:

• Heather Morrison [for what it’s worth I strongly disagree on commercial clauses]
• Stevan Harnad [I also disagree with Stevan on the tactics of settling for less]
• Peter Suber
• Casey Bergman
• Ross Mounce
• The Creative Commons organisation
• Matt Wedel, posted as a comment here on SV-POW!
• Mike Taylor, in its own SV-POW! article
• UK Council of Research Repositories
• Tom Olijhoek

(Apologies to anyone I’ve missed.)

Nearly all these responses are rather long and dry, but let me emphasise again that you don’t have to write a long submission.  If you just send a one-liner, “I endorse the new proposed OA policy”, that’s worth doing.

So please, folks.  Do it now, while the call is still open.