[GOAL] Re: Clarification of the new OA policy from the RCUK

[Andrew A. Adams]

> I think the new OA Policy of the RCUK is a pragmatic one and could be
> a role model for others outside the UK because it reflects and
> supports the vital development on the Gold OA publication market
> (beyond PLoS and BMC think of PeerJ, IZA journals, Forum of
> Mathematics, eLife, OAPEN, SCOAP3, eEconomics, F1000 Research ...)
> 
> 
> The point I would add is not only to fund APCs but also business
> models where not authors but research institutions or other
> institutions cover the costs. That works quite well for some very
> prestigious OA journals as Journal of Economic Perspectives,
> Computational Linguistics, Journal of Machine Learning, Theoretical
> Economics ... )
> 
> That could could also help to have more competition on innovation,
> quality and prices on the publication market.

I utterly disagree. As sdomeone who used to be an academic at a UK University 
I am horrified at the Finch Report and the RCUK embodiment of it. THey are 
propoising that recipients of RCUK grants be required to pay-to-publish but 
are not fully funding this mandate. They have admitted themselves that this 
will place universities in the position of having to consider limiting the 
output of their staff in journal articles. In the current climate where the 
REF is being used as a warhammer to batter already severely pressured 
academics by, in far too many cases, bullying managers, adding this extra 
element to the difficulties fsaced by academics is completely clueless. It 
will further entrench block distinctions between universities - Oxford, 
Cambridge, UCL/IC/KC will receive (and have the funds themselves anyway) to 
pay for their staff to publish in top journals with high Hybrid APCs. Many 
staff at other universities if they try to follow the RCUK policy will have 
to publish their work in less prestigious journals with lower APCs or in 
newer fee-free gold journals. Regardless of the actual quality of the work, 
publication in a less prestigious locus generally does lead to less 
readership, therefore less citation and a downward spiral in terms of REF and 
other prestige indicators.
The new RCUK policy is a farce, perpetrated by people who REALLY REALLY do 
not understand the political economy of academic publishing and its impact on 
individual academics and universities.




-- 
Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/