Re: Wrong Advice On Open Access: History Repeating Itself

From: Couture Marc <couture.marc_at_TELUQ.UQAM.CA>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:05:49 -0500

On November 9, 2009, 18:22, Stevan Harnad wrote:

>
> I'm not criticizing the pursuit of other options *in addition*
> to mandating self-archiving, I'm criticizing pursuing them *instead*,
i.e.
> without first doing the doable, and already long overdue.
>

As one who has worked (and devoted much time) on both Green- and Gold-OA
in the last few years (though on a definitely smaller scale than the
global crusade of Stevan's, but the changes must come from both global
and local actions) I can't really accept his seemingly inescapable
conclusion.

It's not obvious to me that stopping my work on gold-OA issues (or, if I
follow Stevan's line of thought, delaying it until nearly 100% green-OA
has been attained through mandates) would have improved the results of
my green-OA actions.

I don't think there is something like a total amount of time and efforts
available, and that these can be directly linked to definite related
results, so as one result suffers in direct proportion to the
time/efforts devoted to pursue others.

Furthermore, not being particularly stubborn, I fear that, had I limited
my actions to green-OA, I wouldn't have found the will to keep trying,
in view of the disappointing results on the green-OA front. So maybe in
the end, I put more efforts on green-OA because I see more immediate, if
not overreaching, results in gold-OA.

It reminds me of the struggle against poverty: Should we stop for a
while working/ fighting/ devoting time or money to help reduce poverty
(or illness, or illiteracy) in rich countries, because the same efforts
or resources could save or improve many more lives in the developing
world?

So, I would have agreed completely to the following opinion, instead of
the one quoted above:

>
> I'm not criticizing the pursuit of other options *in addition*
> to mandating self-archiving, I'm criticizing pursuing them *instead*,
i.e.
> without **also** doing the doable, and already long overdue.
>

The difference lies in one small word.

Marc Couture
Received on Tue Nov 10 2009 - 19:07:05 GMT