<div style="text-align:center"><b>** Cross-Posted **</b></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:18px"><h2 class="date-header" style="font-size:13px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font:normal normal bold 12px/normal Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(68,68,68);min-height:0px;padding-top:0.6em;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0.5em;padding-left:0px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:transparent">
<span>Thursday, July 26, 2012</span></h2><div class="date-posts" style="clear:both;padding-top:0px"><div class="post-outer" style="border-bottom-width:initial;border-bottom-style:none;border-bottom-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-style:none;border-top-width:initial;border-top-color:initial">
<div class="post hentry" style="min-height:0px"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><a name="598439630977807414"></a></font><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font:normal normal normal 24px/normal Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<a href="http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/oa-advocate-stevan-harnad-withdraws_26.html"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">OA advocate Stevan Harnad withdraws support for RCUK policy</font></a></h3></div></div></div>
</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><b>RICHARD POYNDER:</b></span></i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">When on July 16<sup>th</sup> Research Councils UK (</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/Pages/Home.aspx" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">RCUK</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">) published its updated </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/outputs.aspx" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Policy on Access to Research Outputs</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"> the Open Access (</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_journal" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">OA</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">) movement greeted the news with enthusiasm. This was hardly surprising: unlike the recommendations in the controversial </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Finch Report</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"> (published a month earlier), RCUK stressed that it continues to view both </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_journal" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">gold OA</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"> publishing and </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color:white"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-archiving" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">green OA</span></i></a></span><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"> self-archiving as equal partners in any OA policy.</span></i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:18px"><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Gold and green are the two strategies outlined eight years ago when the OA movement was </span></i><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">born</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">, and are viewed as being essential components of any successful transition to OA.</span></i></div>
<i style="background-color:white"><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt"></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">By contrast, Finch concluded that the main vehicle should now be gold OA, either via pure open access journals or via</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_open-access_journal" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">hybrid journals</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">, and that this should be funded by article processing charges (</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/apccomparison/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">APCs</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">).</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">At the same time, Finch argued, it was time to downgrade green OA, and reduce the role of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)">institutional repositories</a> to merely, "providing access to research data and to grey literature" and assisting in digital preservation. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Set alongside the Finch proposals, OA advocates quickly concluded that RCUK’s policy was a godsend.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">One of the first to applaud the new policy was long-standing OA advocate, and self-styled </span></i><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">archivangelist</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">, </span></i><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/harnad" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(120,63,4)"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Stevan Harnad</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">. The minute the report was published a relieved Harnad began flooding mailing lists with messages congratulating RCUK on coming up with a policy that not only defied Finch, but was stronger than its current OA policy. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">But as Harnad set about talking up the policy, and seeking to win over sceptics and doubters, he himself began to have doubts. And eventually he was driven to the conclusion that he had no option but to withdraw his support for the RCUK policy — which he now characterises as “autistic”, and a “foolish, wasteful and counterproductive step backwards”.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;font-family:'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;font-size:10pt">How has what at first sight seemed so desirable rapidly become something terrible? Curious to find out, I contacted Harnad. I publish the email interview that emerged from our conversation <b><a href="http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/oa-advocate-stevan-harnad-withdraws_26.html">HERE</a></b></span></i></div>
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