Changes for Open Access Advocates

Johnson leaves SPARC; Velterop departs BioMed Central

By Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 5/15/2005

Rick Johnson, the founding executive director of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), has announced his resignation. Johnson, the only executive director in SPARC's history, will be replaced July 1by Heather Joseph, currently president and COO of BioOne. Johnson said he plans to take some time "to catch my breath," consult, travel, and spend more time with family.

Under Johnson's leadership, SPARC swelled into an international organization, including SPARC Europe in the UK; in April, Johnson traveled to Japan to strengthen ties there. While SPARC was founded in 1998, developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in 2002 it committed itself as a chief proponent of open access, a decision that both inspired activism among librarians and packed forums at library meetings, most recently as a booster of the National Institutes of Health's public access plan. ARL executive director Duane Webster praised Johnson's efforts for "making libraries an important force in the process of transforming scholarly communication."

On another open access front, Jan Velterop, publisher of pioneering open access publisher BioMed Central, is leaving the company. BioMed Central officials said Velterop was going to "pursue independently his many engagements as an advocate of open access (OA) to societies, funding institutions, and publishers." Velterop joined BioMed Central in 2001, after stints as managing director of Academic Press Limited, where he was responsible for taking forward the IDEAL project, and as a former publishing director of Nature Publishing Group.

A frequent contributor to the open access debate, including Yale's Liblicense electronic discussion list, Velterop has become one of the more recognizable—and quotable—open access advocates. BioMed Central officials called him "a key figure in the development of the open access model" and said he "will now be extending his expertise to other organizations and interest groups."

Of course, Velterop's departure raises the question: What better advocacy is there for open access publishing than running a successful open access publisher? Matthew Cockerill and Anne Greenwood will assume joint responsibility for publishing and other activities of BioMed Central.