[GOAL] The Annals of Futile and Self-Defeating Pro-OA Gestures

[Stevan Harnad]

Journal publisher boycotts (actual and proposed) and journal editorial
board walk-outs (actual and proposed) have repeatedly been tried across the
years, and have had very limited (if any) success (if the goal was to
generate OA).

What is successful in generating OA is for researchers to self-archive
their final drafts (Green OA) in their institutional repositories and for
their institutions and  funders to mandate that they do so.

The walk-out of the Journal of Library Administration (JLA) is an
especially ill-considered step (if the goal was to generate OA).
http://j.mp/YHsOQG

Yes, it might succeed in getting the journal title to migrate to (or
reconstitute with) a Gold OA publisher.

But, as noted below, it is also a slap in the face to Taylor & Francis
(Routledge): Library and Information Science, United Kingdom, which has a
Green (no embargo) policy for its 35 journals (the only T&F journals that
are Green).
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php?id=1134&fIDnum=|&mode=simple&la=en

With Green OA self-archiving, JLA authors could have had 100%
immediate-Green OA at no extra cost, and no risk of the journal going
belly-up -- or migrating to a Gold Access publisher that authors would have
to find the funds to pay to publish with (at a time when their institutions
continue to have to pay their ongoing subscriptions to all other
subscription journals they can afford).

So editorial board resignation or migration for the sake of OA is
premature, short-sighted and indeed counter-productive today, especially
when it punishes a Green publisher.

Yet, at a single journal level, this is just a drop in the ocean, insofar
as well-intentioned pro-OA strategies with perverse effects are concerned.

The jewel in this unenviable crown for futile and self-defeating pro-OA
gestures is surely the Finch/RCUK policy, which has done more to promote
Green OA embargoes than any other "pro-OA" gesture so far.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september12/harnad/09harnad.html

That ill-considered policy has, among other things, reinforced Elsevier's
double-talk rights-retention policy, according to which Elsevier authors
all retain the right to provide immediate un-embargoed Green OA -- but not
if their institution or funder requires them to exercise that right ("you
can if you wish, but not if you must").
http://elsevierconnect.com/what-do-the-new-uk-open-access-policies-mean-for-authors/

Of course, Elsevier's fork-tongued nonsense can safely be ignored by any
sensible author (mandated or un-mandated).

But of course if authors were sensible, we wouldn't need Green OA mandates
in the first place...

SH


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 5:41 AM, Hamaker, Charles <cahamake at uncc.edu> wrote:

> My mistake, Informa appears to be the umbrella organization for T&F:
> http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/
>
> Also, the policy on author posting might date from 2009
> Chuck Hamaker
> ________________________________________
> From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [goal-bounces at eprints.org] on behalf of
> Heather Morrison [hgmorris at sfu.ca]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 3:32 PM
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> Subject: [GOAL] Informa.plc - Taylor and Francis no-embargo for LIS
> journals
>
> In response to a post on the mass resignation of the Journal of Library
> Administration, Informa.plc, the multinational conglomerate working under
> its scholar-friendly-sounding brand "Taylor & Francis", posted this note
> about self-archiving:
>
> "Under our LIS pilot program, authors can freely post their (“post-print”)
> manuscript immediately on publication – ie without any embargo."
>
> from:
>
> https://theconversation.com/journal-editorial-board-quits-over-open-access-principle-13086
>
> Is there a connection? If other disciplines wish to remove embargoes to
> self-archiving, should they convince one of their journals to resign, too?
>
> best,
>
> Heather G. Morrison
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/attachments/20130328/a522c4db/attachment.html