[GOAL] Splitting the Difference on Open Access: Brainlessness Masquerading as "Balance"

[Stevan Harnad]

>From the New York Times, February 27, 2012: Gulf on Open Access to
Federally Financed Research by Guy Gugliotta:

"The debate between these two extremes has been remarkably vitriolic,
in part, perhaps, because neither side has been completely honest. Mr.
Adler would not discuss publishers’ profit margins, and open-access
advocates frequently say that the journals are low-overhead cash cows
that are gouging the public. Open-access scientists, on the other
hand, are less than candid about how important it is to their careers
to be published in prominent traditional journals. If scientists truly
wished to kill the system, all they would have to do is withhold
submissions."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/a-wide-gulf-on-open-access-to-federally-financed-research.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

This is utter nonsense, of course.

(1) Researchers' need (and reasons) for publishing in journals with
high peer review standards are no secret (and nothing to hide or
apologize for!)

(2) The objective of OA is not to "kill the system" but to provide OA.

(3) As usual, the false assumption is that OA = Gold OA publishing.

(4) OA has nothing to do with "withholding submissions" or boycotting.

(5) Both bills (FRPAA and RWA) are about mandating Green OA self-archiving.

What's worth writing an article (or book) about is how this relentless
misunderstanding of something so stunningly simple just keeps
propagating itself, year after year after year.

And it looks like Congress will yet again wimp out this year on FRPAA,
splitting the difference with RWA in much the same clueless spirit as
the above sterling example of "balanced" journalism...

So it's back to yet another year of trying to talk sense into
universities about mandating Green OA...

One thing the journalist got right: There is indeed something that
researchers are less than candid about: not withholding submissions
but about withholding keystrokes...

Harnad, S. (2006) Opening Access by Overcoming Zeno's Paralysis, in
Jacobs, N., Eds. Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic
Aspects. Chandos.

Stevan Harnad
EnablingOpenScholarship