[GOAL] Finch Working Group minutes (27 April)

[Steve Hitchcock]

The minutes from the last meeting of the Finch Working Group on Expanding Access, which is advising the UK government, are out (not sure when these were released, but the meeting was on 27 April) 
http://www.researchinfonet.org/publish/wg-expand-access/

It is helpful to have this insight into the thinking of the WG. The WG was meeting again yesterday, so some of this may be superseded.

Stephen Curry has updated his reports to cover the 27 April meeting 
http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2012/05/17/finch-committee-update/

I have a shorter take below, but note we are homing in on the same issues.

If the publishers are pressing the case for Article Processing Charges (APCs), they are succeeding. First RCUK was criticised for its 'premature' draft OA policy, which has now been amended:

"It was pointed out that the issuing of the draft has already led to the clarification of the Research Council position on APCs (as set out above), which effectively replaces the relevant text in the draft."

To be clear on what this new position is:

"The idea behind the policy is that the suggested embargo period would apply only to journals wishing to pursue the green route; but the gold route was the preferred option. Publishers argued that this would necessitate a firm commitment by Research Councils to meet APCs; as such, RCUK’s new stance on APCs was timely."

However, the publishers are not necessarily conceding much in return for APCs:

"Publishers were also apprehensive about the proposals relating to text mining. RCUK’s view is that it wishes to see all research outputs from its funding placed in the public domain, and feels that the suggested approach to text mining addresses this need."

This list has recently seen discussion on this point of reuse rights, especially for gold OA publications. The WG has a new but unclear term to add to the debate, 'Maximum access':

"Maximum access at the point of use should be set out at the outset as a fundamental principle, with APCs presented as a key vehicle for this, but not the only vehicle."

If the WG is to be led on by the prospect of including hybrid journals (those that charge both subscribers and APCs) in their proposals, they do so with their eyes open:

"The Group observed also that the £18.7m saving from subscription charges does not take account of ‘stickiness’ in a transitional shift from subscription to APCs – which is liable to take a significant amount of time. Such a transition implies additional costs."

One has to ask where green OA and repositories are represented in this, and the answer is in a sub-group and 'matters arising'.

Steve Hitchcock
WAIS Group, Building 32
School of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
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