[GOAL] Finch Fiasco in Figures

[Stevan Harnad]

**Cross-Posted **


The Finch Report<http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf>,
under strong and palpable influence from the publishing lobby, instead of
recommending extending and optimizing the UK's worldwide lead in providing
Green OA, cost-free, through institutional and funder self-archiving
mandates, has recommended abandoning Green OA and Green OA mandates and
instead spending extra money (£50-60 million yearly) on paying publishers'
Gold OA fees as well as a UK blanket national site-license fee to cover
whatever is not yet Gold OA (i.e., all the journals that UK institutions
currently subscribe to, rather like the "Big Deals" publishers have been
successfully negotiating with individual institutions and consortia):


*Finch on Green:* *"The [Green OA] policies of neither research funders nor
universities themselves have yet had a major effect in ensuring that
researchers make their publications accessible in institutional
repositories… [so] the infrastructure of subject and institutional
repositories should [instead] be developed [to] play a valuable role
complementary to formal publishing, particularly in providing access to
research data and to grey literature, and in digital preservation [no
mention of Green OA]…"*


*Finch on Gold:** "Gold" open access, funded by article charges, should be
seen as "the main vehicle for the publication of research"… Public funders
should establish "more effective and flexible arrangements" to pay [Gold
OA] article charges… During the transition to [Gold] open access, funding
should be found to extend licences [subscriptions] for non-open-access
content to the whole UK higher education and health sectors…*


Now here are some of the actual figures behind the above assertions. Let
readers come to their own conclusions about the relative success, cost,
benefits, cost-effectiveness, growth potential and timetable of mandating
Green OA vs funding Gold OA:


http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/905-Finch-Fiasco-in-Figures.html
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