Yes, it is worth saying that there are two types of Select Committees -
those of the House of Lords and those of the House of Commons. For some
obscure historical reason, the UK Government MUST issue a response to every
Lords Select C'tee Report, but is not obliged to agree with its
recommendations. In contrast, the Government is not even obliged to respond
to a House of Commons Select Committee Report, let alone agree to anything
it recommends. So the outcome of this House of Commons Report may well be
an almighty silence from the UK Government - and indeed, that is what I
expect will happen, as the issues raised are not high on the UK Government's
agenda. But the Report will nonetheless make interesting reading, and will
provide ammunition for anyone who cares to make use of selected sentences
from it!
Charles
Professor Charles Oppenheim
Department of Information Science
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leics LE11 3TU
01509-223065
(fax) 01509-223053
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Mahon" <barry.mahon_at_IOL.IE>
To: <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: UK Select Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publication
On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 13:30:08 +0100, Charles Oppenheim
<C.Oppenheim_at_lboro.ac.uk> wrote:
> According to yesterday's "Observer" newspaper,
> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1258849,00.html
> the committee will recommend that legislation be introduced to force
> all UK publishers to use an OA route, but I have to say I found that
> notion incredible.
Me too Charles, perhaps from your experience you might enlighten the people
on this list as to the significance (or otherwise) of such Committees and
their reports?
Bye, Barry Mahon
Received on Tue Jul 13 2004 - 16:18:38 BST