[GOAL] Re: Open Access in the UK: Reinventing the Big Deal

[Stevan Harnad]

On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 9:18 AM, Sally Morris <
sally at morris-assocs.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> **
> It's my impression that it's not researchers per se (they like publishing
> in journals, and reading articles with a journal 'label', with all the
> signals that carries), but rather their cash-strapped librarians, who are
> increasingly likely to be tempted by the (apparently) free 'alternative' to
> journals if and when it offers them all or most of the literature their
> users want.  And that's what, understandably, scares publishers - and some
> of the usage patterns shown up by recent studies can only fuel their
> anxieties.  Publishers are not against enabling the largest possible number
> of people to read the content they publish - what they are against is being
> forced out of business.
>
> But the underlying problem is the inevitably growing gap between
> libraries' funding and the cost of providing access to anywhere near all
> the literature their users might want.  This is not publishers' fault - it
> is simply the result of the growth in research funding, which far outstrips
> the growth (if any) in library funding.  That's what makes the Gold OA
> model so attractive to me - in well-funded research areas, at least, it has
> the potential to scale with research funding.
>
> But even then, the global total cost of publication is bound to continue
> to rise.  I suspect none of us has yet come up with a sufficiently radical
> new model for providing the services that researchers want, both as authors
> and as readers, in a way that is both affordable for the beneficiaries and
> worthwhile for the service providers.  That doesn't mean to say there isn't
> a fantastic new model out there - I certainly hope there is!  But
> personally I don't think Green OA is it.
>

Green OA is not a publishing model.

And it's not intended as a solution to the journal affordability problem.

Green OA is a solution to the research accessibility problem: It's
essential, urgent, immediately reachable (via mandates), and long overdue.

The rest will take care of itself. Publishing will adapt to Green OA.
Publishers cannot and should not keep trying to stop it.

Stevan Harnad
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