[BOAI] Re: RCUK & EC Did Not Follow Finch/Willets

Thu Jul 19 22:03:24 BST 2012

Well! Thank you all who responded. I will have to think about your answers.
One thought though: Its either 'all' or 'none' for open access otherwise it
don't work for scholarship.

From: boai-forum-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk
[mailto:boai-forum-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 12:50 PM
To: boai-forum at ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: [BOAI] Re: RCUK & EC Did Not Follow Finch/Willets
Importance: High

On 2012-07-19, at 11:05 AM, Allen Kleiman (Editor, JAMA) wrote:

I asked the question before:

'Who pays for distribution and storage?'

I got no answer!  Its not that simple -- everything should be free to all
but that's not how it works in our 'world economy.'

Allen Kleiman

Institutional Repositories (IRs) cost little to create and maintain, have
multiple uses, and are part of universities' infrastructure. The cost per
paper deposited is negligible. The distributor is the Internet (also part of
universities' infrastructure), the Web, Google, and countless other
harvesters, indexers and search engines (some specialized for OA research).

What other "distribution" did you have in mind? (Or are you still thinking
in terms of Gutenberg-era print/paper distribution?)

Stevan Harnad

From: boai-forum-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk
[mailto:boai-forum-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Prof. T.D. Wilson
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:14 AM
To: boai-forum at ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: [BOAI] Re: RCUK & EC Did Not Follow Finch/Willets

While I agree with virtually all that Stevan Harnad has to say about Finch
and Willets, I doubt that repositories can be regarded as "cost free": in
addition to the costs of providing and maintaining the appropriate database
software (even if it is open source, it still needs maintenance), there is
the cost of up to one full-time cataloguer/librarian to monitor quality,
etc.

In a recent study of the repository of a Swedish university, we found that
quality control was a major issue, with academic staff reporting conference
papers for which no source could be found and, indeed, at times, not even
the conference could be found. So - definitely cheaper, but not cost free.

As to the composition of the Finch working party, I imagine it was
determined by the Minister, and who lobbies the Minister...?

On 19 July 2012 04:36, Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

On 2012-07-18, Anthony Watkinson on LIBLICENSE wrote:

There were three publishers on the Finch committee (out of seventeen
members)... [1]

I do not know of any evidence that they had a special line to Finch
herself or any special privileges. I do not know of any special
influence that representative bodies for publishing might have had.
Does Professor Harnad? [2]

Some years ago Professor Harnad had a lot of influence on the
conclusions of a Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee in the
UK. Perhaps he expects the same special channel he had then [3]

[1] 

There were more -- Learned Societies are publishers too -- but three

publishers would already be three too many in a committee on providing 

open access to publicly funded research.

[2] 

The recommendations of the Finch committee were identical to the

ones for which publishers have been lobbying aggressively for years

(ever since it has become evident that trying to lobby against OA itself

in the face of the mounting pressure for it from the research community is

futile and very ill-received by the research community). 

The publisher lobbying has accordingly been for the following:

"Phase out Green OA and provide money to pay for Gold OA."

The Finch outcome was already pre-determined as a result of 

publisher lobbying before the committee was even constituted:

Finch on Green: "The [Green OA] policies of neither research funders 

nor universities themselves have yet had a major effect in ensuring that 

researchers make their publications accessible in institutional
repositories

[so] the infrastructure of subject and institutional repositories should
[instead] 

be developed [to] play a valuable role complementary to formal publishing, 

particularly in providing access to research data and to grey literature,
and 

in digital preservation [no mention of Green OA]
"

Finch on Gold: "Gold" open access, funded by article charges, should be 

seen as "the main vehicle for the publication of research"
 Public 

funders should establish "more effective and flexible arrangements" 

to pay [Gold OA] article charges
 During the transition to [Gold] open 

access, funding should be found to extend licences [subscriptions] 

for non-open-access content to the whole UK higher education and 

health sectors
"

But that's all moot now, as both RCUK and EC have ignored it,

instead re-affirming and strengthening their Green OA mandates

the day after Mr. Willets announced the adoption of the recommendations

of the Finch committee:

"[P]eer reviewed research papers which result from research that 

is wholly or partially funded by the Research Councils... must be 

published in journals
 [either] offering a “pay to publish” option

[Gold OA] or allowing deposit in a subject or institutional 

repository [Green OA] after a mandated maximum embargo 

period
 of no more than six months
 except
 AHRC and

ESRC where the maximum... is 12 months
"

http://roarmap.eprints.org/671/

[3] 

The 2004 recommendations of the Parliamentary Select 

Committee on Science and Technology were based on 

23 oral testimonials and 127 written testimonials. Mine was one

of the 127 written testimonials. If anything had influence on the

outcome, it was evidence and reasons.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/3991
6.htm

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/3991
7.htm

The 2004 Select Committee recommendation had been this: 

“This Report recommends that all UK higher education institutions 

establish institutional repositories on which their published output 

can be stored and from which it can be read, free of charge, online. 

It also recommends that Research Councils and other Government 

funders mandate their funded researchers to deposit a copy of all 

of their articles in this way... [T]he Report [also] recommends that 

the Research Councils each establish a fund to which their funded 

researchers can apply should they wish to pay to publish...”

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/3990
3.htm

At that time, despite the fact that the UK government (again under 

pressure from the publishing lobby) decided to ignore the Select 

Committee’s recommendation to mandate Green OA, RCUK and 

many UK universities adopted Green OA mandates anyway. 

As a  result, the UK became the global leader in the transition to 

Open Access.

If heeded, the Finch Committee recommendation to downgrade 

repository use to the storage and preservation of data, theses and 

unpublished work would have set back global OA by at least a decade.

Fortunately, the RCUK has again shown its sense and independence,

reaffirming and strengthening its Green OA mandate.

Let us hope UK’s universities — not pleased that scarce research funds, 

instead of being increased, are to be decreased to pay extra needlessly 

for Gold OA — will likewise continue to opt instead for cost-free Green OA 

by mandating it.

If so, the UK will again have earned and re-affirmed its leadership role 

in the global transition to universal OA.

Stevan Harnad

________________________________
From: Stevan Harnad <amsciforum at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:32:45 -0400

Irony of ironies, that it should now appear (to some who are not
paying attention) as if the the RCUK & EC were following the
recommendations of Finch/Willets when in point of fact they are
pointedly rejecting them!

RCUK and EC were already leading the world in providing and mandating Green
OA.

Finch/Willets, under the influence of the publisher lobby, have
recommended abandoning cost-free Green OA and instead spending scarce
research money on paying publishers extra for Gold OA.

Both RCUK & EC immediately announced that, no, they would stay the
course in which they were already leading -- mandatory Green OA. (They
even shored it up, shortening the maximum allowable embargo period,
again directly contrary to Finch/Willets!)

What Finch/Willets have mandated is that £50,000,000.00 of the UK's
scarce research budget is taken away annually from UK research and
redirected instead to paying publishers for Gold OA.

The UK government is free to squander its public funds as it sees fit.

But as long as cost-free Green OA mandates remain in effect, that's
just a waste of money, not of progress in the global growth in OA.

(A lot of hard, unsung work had to be done to fend off the concerted
efforts of the publisher lobby, so brilliantly successful in duping
Finch/Willets, to dupe the RCUK and EC too. They failed. And they will
fail with the US too. And the UK will maintain its leadership in the
worldwide OA movement, despite Finch/Willets, not because of it.)

Stevan Harnad

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Professor T.D. Wilson, PhD, PhD (h.c.)

Publisher and Editor in Chief: Information Research

http://informationr.net/ir/

E-mail: wilsontd at gmail.com

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