[BOAI] Houghton & Swan (2012): Planting the green seeds for a golden harvest: Comments and clarifications on “Going for Gold”

[Stevan Harnad]

John Houghton and Alma Swan have published several important and
influential economic analyses of the costs and benefits of Open Access
(OA), Gold OA publishing and Green OA self-archiving worldwide and for the
UK.

The specific implications of their findings for the UK Finch
Committee<http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf>recommendations
and RCUK
OA Policy <http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/RCUK
_Policy_on_Access_to_Research_Outputs.pdf> as well as for worldwide OA
policy are very clearly and explicitly stated in their latest paper
(Houghton & Swan 2012):

*Houghton, John & Swan, Alma (2012) Planting the green seeds for a golden
harvest<http://www.cfses.com/projects/Going%20for%20Gold%20-%20Comment%20and%20Clarification%20%28Houghton%20and%20Swan%29.pdf>:
Comments and clarifications on “Going for
Gold<http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/610/>
”*
http://www.cfses.com/projects/Going%20for%20Gold%20-%20Comment%20and%20Clarification%20%28Houghton%20and%20Swan%29.pdf


*SUMMARY*


"The economic modelling work we have carried out over the past few years
has been referred to and cited a number of times in the discussions of the
Finch report and subsequent policy developments in the UK. We are concerned
that there may be some misinterpretation of this work.

"This short paper sets out the main conclusions of our work, which was
designed to explore the overall costs and benefits of Open Access (OA), as
well as identify the most cost-effective policy basis for transitioning to
OA at national and institutional levels.

"The main findings are that disseminating research results via OA would be
more cost-effective than subscription publishing. If OA were adopted
worldwide, the net benefits of Gold OA would exceed those of Green OA.
However, we are not in an OA world, nor are we likely to be in such a world
in the foreseeable future.

"*At the institutional level, during a transitional period when
subscriptions are maintained, the cost of unilaterally adopting Green OA is
much lower than the cost of Gold OA – with Green OA self-archiving costing
average institutions sampled around one-fifth the amount that Gold OA might
cost, and as little as one-tenth as much for the most research intensive
university.*
*
*
*"Hence, we conclude that the most affordable and cost-effective means of
moving towards OA is through Green OA, which can be adopted unilaterally at
the funder, institutional, sectoral and national levels at relatively
little cost*." [emphasis added]


*Further References:*

Finch, Dame Janet et al (2012) Accessibility, sustainability, excellence:
how to expand access to research
publications<http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf>.
*Report of the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research
Findings*.
http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf

Harnad, S. (2010) The Immediate Practical Implication of the Houghton
Report: Provide Green Open Access Now <http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/18514>.
*Prometheus*, 28 (1) 55-59. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/18514

Houghton,J.W. & Oppenheim, C. (2009) The Economic Implications of
Alternative Publishing
Models<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08109021003676359>.
*Prometheus* 28 (1) 41-54
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08109021003676359

Houghton, J.W., Rasmussen, B., Sheehan, P.J., Oppenheim, C., Morris, A.,
Creaser, C., Greenwood, H., Summers, M. and Gourlay, A. (2009) Economic
Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models: Exploring the
Costs and Benefits<http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/economicpublishingmodelsfinalreport.aspx>,
Report to The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) by Victoria
University & Loughborough University.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/economicpublishingmodelsfinalreport.aspx

See also the related addendum:
http://www.cfses.com/EI-ASPM/JISC%20EI-ASPM%20Report%20(Addendum%20April%2009).pdf

RCUK (2012) Policy on Access to Research Outputs RCUK Research
Councils UK<http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/RCUK
_Policy_on_Access_to_Research_Outputs.pdf>
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/RCUK
_Policy_on_Access_to_Research_Outputs.pdf

Swan, A. and Houghton, J.W. (2012) Going for
Gold?<http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/610/> The
costs and benefits of Gold Open Access for UK research institutions:
Further economic modelling, Report to the UK Open Access Implementation
Group (July 2012). http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/610/
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