<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">**Cross-posted*</span></div><div style="font-weight:bold"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px"><b><br>
</b></span></div><b>RCUK & EC DID NOT FOLLOW FINCH/WILLETS, </b></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px"><b>THEY REJECTED IT, PROMPTLY AND PROMINENTLY!</b></span><br><div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:40px;border-top-style:none;border-right-style:none;border-bottom-style:none;border-left-style:none;border-width:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:medium">
<div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font:normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica"><b><br></b></div></div></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Irony of ironies, that it should now appear (to some who are not paying attention) </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">as if the the RCUK & EC were following the recommendations of Finch/Willets </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">when in point of fact <i>they are pointedly rejecting them</i>! </span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">RCUK and EC were already leading the world in providing and mandating Green OA. </span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Finch/Willets, under the influence of the publisher lobby, have recommended </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">abandoning cost-free Green OA and instead spending scarce research money </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">on paying publishers extra for Gold OA. </span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Both <a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/news/2012news/Pages/120716.aspx">RCUK</a> & <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/recommendation-access-and-preservation-scientific-information_en.pdf">EC</a> immediately announced that, <i>no, they would stay the course </i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px"><i>in which they were already leading -- mandatory Green OA</i>. (They even shored it up, </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">shortening the maximum allowable embargo period, again directly contrary to Finch/Willets!)</span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">What Finch/Willets have mandated is that £50,000,000.00 of the UK's scarce research </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">budget is taken away annually from UK research and redirected instead to paying </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">publishers for Gold OA.</span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">The UK government is free to squander its public funds as it sees fit. </span><br>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">But as long as cost-free Green OA mandates remain in effect, that's just a waste of money, </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">not of progress in the global growth in OA.</span><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:medium"><blockquote type="cite"></blockquote></div>
</div></div><div>(A lot of hard, unsung work had to be done to fend off the concerted efforts of</div><div>the publisher lobby, so brilliantly successful in duping Finch/Willets, to dupe the</div><div>RCUK and EC too. They failed. And they will fail with the US too. And the UK</div>
<div>will maintain its leadership in the worldwide OA movement, despite Finch/Willets,</div><div>not because of it.)</div><div><br></div><div>Stevan Harnad</div>