Biblical Studies Online Repository ::

AKMA seems to have started it, with his comment:

Lesson in Stature

Judging from my students’ papers, one of the most prominent journals in the field of biblical studies would be Bibliotheca Sacra, a publication of Dallas Theological Seminary — a source whose theology almost all of Seabury’s students would reject out of hand....

Stephen Carlson took up the issue, pointing to an older post where he reiterated Steve Lawrence (now a 404) research showing that articles that were freely available online got cited more often. Stephen argues:

If you want the benefits of getting your work cited more frequently, it is best to not rely on the fickle business models of journal publishers but put up your own open access, on-line copy of your articles on your own home page (preferably with your own domain-name unless you can predict that where you are now is where you will end your career). Many copyright agreements with journal publishers already permit this.

I can't help wondering if this would be a really good service for "someone" (perhaps SBL) to provide, a stable reliable URL for an online post-print repository of Biblical Studies articles. I know that Mark at NT Gateway does a fine job of keeping up with listing what is available in that field and that the OTGateway tries to do the same, but neither has the searchability and ease of use of a repository.

So, AKMA, Stephen, Mark and all, how about it, could/should we start asking SBL to look at the possibility? Inevitably whether or not to deposit a post-print would be up to each individual, but the "pull" of SBL together with the ease of use of a repository would surely soon achieve a critical mass or critical scholarship!

¶ 8:30 AM [to Del.icio.us]

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