Stevan Harnad wrote:
>Splendid evidence-based rebuttal by John Houghton. -- SH
>
>
>
... the actual studies are listed, and the conclusion is:
>By way of triangulation, a 50% to 75% reported access difficulty
>
>
If, being conservative, I estimate that 33% of all desired article
access do not
occur due to access problems then:
Kurtz, et al, JASIST 56, 36 (2004)
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kurtz/jasist1-abstract.html
discussed the value of the interlinked system of electronic journals and
indices in astronomy
(which approximate a fully interlinked, local OA system) and found that
it amounts to an
efficiency increase in 6% in total research output.
A one third reduction of this benefit, due to closed access, would be 2%
of total research.
If the total R&D budget of the world is a tera-dollar then 2% is $20
billion. For comparison
the entire direct cost of publishing is normally estimated at a little
less than 1%, or $10 billion.
This says that the value of OA is twice the cost of the STM publishing
industry.
This does not include any benefit which would come from articles being
read by the public.
Best wishes,
MIchael
--
Dr. Michael J. Kurtz
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
VOICE: +1-617-495-7434
FAX: +1-617-495-7467
E-MAIL: kurtz_at_cfa.harvard.edu
WWW: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kurtz
Received on Wed Apr 04 2007 - 23:34:04 BST