Subversive Proposal
Encyclopedia
The "Subversive Proposal" was an Internet posting by Stevan Harnad
on June 27 1994 (presented orally at the 1994 Network Services Conference in London on November 28 1994) calling on all authors of "esoteric" writings—written only for research impact, not for royalty income—to archive them free for all online (in anonymous FTP archives or websites). It initiated a series of online exchanges, many of which were collected and published as a book in 1995: Ann Shumelda Okerson
& James J. O'Donnell
(Eds.) Scholarly Journals at the Crossroads: A Subversive Proposal for Electronic Publishing. Washington, DC., Association of Research Libraries
, June 1995. This led to the creation in 1997 of Cogprints
, an Open Access Archive for self-archived articles in the Cognitive Sciences and in 1998 to the creation of the American Scientist Open Access Forum
(initially called the "September98 Forum" until the founding of the Budapest Open Access Initiative
which first coined the term "Open Access"). The GNU
Eprints
software for creating OAI
-compliant Open Access Institutional Repositories also evolved out of the Subversive Proposal.
The "Subversive Proposal" was in many ways naive and had many flaws, corrected one by one along the way, and summarized in the American Scientist Open Access Forum on its 10th anniversary: "June 27 2004: The 1994 'Subversive Proposal' at 10". A retrospective was written by Richard Poynder:
"Ten Years After" Information Today
21(9) October 1 2004. A self-critique -- "The 1994 'Subversive Proposal' at 15: A Critique" -- was posted on its 15th anniversary in 2009.
Stevan Harnad
Stevan Harnad is a cognitive scientist.- Career :Harnad was born in Budapest, Hungary. He did his undergraduate work at McGill University and his graduate work at Princeton University's Department of Psychology...
on June 27 1994 (presented orally at the 1994 Network Services Conference in London on November 28 1994) calling on all authors of "esoteric" writings—written only for research impact, not for royalty income—to archive them free for all online (in anonymous FTP archives or websites). It initiated a series of online exchanges, many of which were collected and published as a book in 1995: Ann Shumelda Okerson
Ann Shumelda Okerson
Ann Shumelda Okerson is an internationally distinguished librarian and expert on the place of new digital technologies in libraries. She serves as Senior Advisor on Electronic Strategies for the Center for Research Libraries...
& James J. O'Donnell
James J. O'Donnell
James Joseph O'Donnell is a classical scholar and the Provost of Georgetown University. O'Donnell previously served as Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania...
(Eds.) Scholarly Journals at the Crossroads: A Subversive Proposal for Electronic Publishing. Washington, DC., Association of Research Libraries
Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries is an organization of the leading research libraries in North America. As of October 2006, it comprises 123 libraries at comprehensive, research-intensive institutions in the US and Canada that share similar missions, aspirations, and achievements...
, June 1995. This led to the creation in 1997 of Cogprints
CogPrints
CogPrints is an electronic archive in which authors can self-archive papers in any area of Cognitive Science, including Psychology, Neuroscience, and Linguistics, and many areas of Computer Science , Philosophy , Biology CogPrints is an electronic archive in which authors can self-archive papers in...
, an Open Access Archive for self-archived articles in the Cognitive Sciences and in 1998 to the creation of the American Scientist Open Access Forum
American Scientist Open Access Forum
The American Scientist Open Access Forum is the longest-standing online discussion forum on Open Access...
(initially called the "September98 Forum" until the founding of the Budapest Open Access Initiative
Budapest Open Access Initiative
The Budapest Open Access Initiative was a conference convened by the Open Society Institute on December 1-2, 2001. This small gathering of individuals is recognised as one of the major historical, and defining, events of the open access movement....
which first coined the term "Open Access"). The GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
Eprints
EPrints
EPrints is a free and open source software package for building open access repositories that are compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. It shares many of the features commonly seen in Document Management systems, but is primarily used for institutional...
software for creating OAI
Open Archives Initiative
The Open Archives Initiative is an attempt to build a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives containing digital content . It allows people to harvest metadata...
-compliant Open Access Institutional Repositories also evolved out of the Subversive Proposal.
The "Subversive Proposal" was in many ways naive and had many flaws, corrected one by one along the way, and summarized in the American Scientist Open Access Forum on its 10th anniversary: "June 27 2004: The 1994 'Subversive Proposal' at 10". A retrospective was written by Richard Poynder:
"Ten Years After" Information Today
Information Today, Inc.
Information Today, Inc. is the publisher of several Internet and Technology magazines, newsletters and books all geared toward the library, information & knowledge management community...
21(9) October 1 2004. A self-critique -- "The 1994 'Subversive Proposal' at 15: A Critique" -- was posted on its 15th anniversary in 2009.