I like my friend Jan Velterop's good-natured replies
http://theparachute.blogspot.com/2007/03/challenge-for-open-access.html
(even though, I cannot, of course, agree with most of what he says).
I am also more than happy for Jan to invoke my "ceterum censeo"
http://www.google.com/search?q=harnad+%22ceterum+censeo%22&num=100&hl=en&filter=0
to anticipate my likely response, that being precisely what I myself have
been calling it for years!
But let us cut to the quick, because this is all in reality exceedingly simple, once
shorn of the ideology, wishful thinking and non-sequiturs:
(1) Jan is for OA; so am I.
(2) 100% OA can be had by (i) converting journals from subscriptions to publication
charges, with (ii) author/institutions paying the publication charges, and (iii) the
journals providing the OA (Gold OA).
(3) Or 100% OA can be had by (i) leaving journals as they are, (ii) with
user/institution subscriptions paying the publication costs, and (iii) the
author/institutions providing the OA (Green OA), by self-archiving their published
articles.
(4) If and when Green OA ever makes subscriptions unsustainable, then the journals can
convert to Gold and institutions can redirect their subscription savings to pay for
their author' publication charges.
(5) But Green-driven conversion to Gold requires Green first.
(6) Neither Gold OA nor Green OA is happening spontaneously fast enough, despite their
substantial demonstrated benefits to research.
(6) Green OA can be (and is being) accelerated by research funder/employer
self-archiving mandates that are already being adopted, proposed, and
petitioned for.
http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/key-perspectives.pdf
(7) These Green OA mandates are being delayed by lobbying from some publishers.
http://www.stm-assoc.org/brussels-declaration/
(8) One would have expected Green OA mandates to be opposed by (some)
non-OA publishers, but supported by all OA advocates, including (all)
Gold OA (and hybrid Green/Gold) publishers.
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070122/full/445347a.html
http://www.dcprinciples.org/press/2.htm
(9) So the anomaly is the failure of (some) Gold OA or hybrid Green/Gold
publishers to support the Green OA mandates, in some cases even actively
opposing them.
Jan "challenges" me, in return, to say whether as an OA advocate I would
support a Gold OA mandate that would forbid fundee institutions to use
research funds for subscriptions, allowing them to be used only to pay
OA publishing costs.
I can answer quite explicitly: *If* such a Gold OA mandate were also coupled with
a Green mandate, *and* were ensured of wide, quick adoption, whereas a simple
Green mandate alone was not, then I would definitely support the Green/Gold mandate.
But that is not the reality at all. The reality is that not even stand-alone Green OA
mandates are being adopted sufficiently widely and quickly yet (although there are
grounds for optimism), and that the two reasons they are not being adopted widely and
quickly enough are (a) publisher opposition and (b) worries about whether, at the
current (arbitrary) asking price, Gold OA would be viable and affordable.
I think simple Green OA mandates alone will be able to overcome the opposition and
delays, whereas burdening the efforts to get an OA mandate adopted at all with still
further handicaps (such as complicated constraints on funding budget overheads,
uncertain interactions with library budgets, and uncertainty about the current
viability -- or even the necessity -- of Gold OA publishing) would simply increase
resistance and delay or derail adoption of any OA mandate at all.
So I support and promote simple Green OA mandates, not Green OA mandates with
budgetary constraints pre-emptively redirecting research funds that are currently used
for subscriptions toward paying instead for Gold OA publishing charges. I don't think
that is necessary or even makes sense now, though it might eventually make sense
if and when it is needed, i.e., if and when Green OA is ever exerting significant
cancellation pressure on subscriptions.
href="
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399we152.htm
But what we need now is OA, and mandating Green OA is the fastest, surest way to
generate 100% OA.
Ceterum censeo...
Cato the Elder
Received on Sat Mar 03 2007 - 19:19:11 GMT