[GOAL] OA Week: Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate Effectiveness

[Stevan Harnad]

In June 2012, the UK Finch Committee made the following statement:

*"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…"* *[Finch
Committee Recommendation, June
2012<http://www.researchinfonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Finch-Group-report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf>
]** *

*
*

*Testing the Finch Hypothesis*

We have now tested the Finch Hypothesis. Using data from ROARMAP
institutional Green OA mandates and data from ROAR on institutional
repositories, we found that deposit number and rate is significantly
correlated with mandate strength (classified as 1-12): The stronger the
mandate, the more the deposits. The strongest mandates generate deposit
rates of  70%+ within 2 years of adoption, compared to the un-mandated
deposit rate of  20%. The effect is already detectable at the national
level, where the UK, which has the largest proportion of Green OA mandates,
has a national OA rate of 35%, compared to the global baseline of 25%.



*Conclusion**
*The conclusion is that, contrary to the Finch Hypothesis, Green Open
Access Mandates *do* have a major effect, and the stronger the mandate, the
stronger the effect (the Liege ID/OA mandate<http://roarmap.eprints.org/56/>,
linked to research performance evaluation, being the strongest mandate
model). RCUK<http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/RCUK%20_Policy_on_Access_to_Research_Outputs.pdf>
(as
well as all universities, research institutions and research funders
worldwide) would be well advised to adopt the strongest Green OA mandates
and to integrate institutional and funder mandates.

The findings are in the link below. *Discussion invited!*

Gargouri, Yassine, Lariviere, Vincent, Gingras, Yves, Brody, Tim, Carr, Les
 and Harnad, Stevan (2012) Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate
Effectiveness <http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344687/>. *Open Access Week 2012*

* *
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