[GOAL] Re: The Journal Publisher Lobby in the UK & Netherlands: Part I

Sun Nov 17 11:50:12 GMT 2013

On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 5:48 PM, Gerritsma, Wouter
<wouter.gerritsma at wur.nl>wrote:

>  @Stevan,
>
>
>
> Yes Stevan the Dutch secretary of education his letter has quite a bit of
> the Finch tone in it. But there are also some opportunities in his letter
> for repositories. Dekker actually asks for exact figures on OA in the
> Netherlands.
>
>
>
> "To obtain insight into the situation I request the universities, KNAW and
> NWO to provide numbers on Open Access publications through the various
> clearly defined variants of OA."
>
>
>
> In the Netherlands we have of course Narcis http://www.narcis.nl already,
> a comprehensive repository of nearly all OA publications in the
> Netherlands. But counting OA publications only is not sufficient. That is a
> small mistake in Dekker his letter. What is less well known is that all
> Dutch universities have to report to ministry of Education all the
> scientific output as well. This happens through the VSNU
> http://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/Feiten_en_Cijfers/Scientific_Research_Agreed_Definitions__def_2011_IRRH-20110624.pdf
>
>
>
>
> If due to this letter of Dekker it was decided that all reports on the
> output of the Dutch Science system to the ministry would be based on the
> full registration of all output registered in Narcis, on top of all OA
> publications it already registers, the underlying repositories would be in
> a much better position. If only Narcis takes up its responsibility and
> makes reports along the lines I did nearly 2 years ago
> http://wowter.net/2012/02/10/a-census-of-open-access-repositories-in-the-netherlands/the repository infrastructure in the Netherlands would be reinforced as
> well.
>
>
>
> So apart from the fact that OA is on the political agenda in the
> Netherlands, there is an important momentum for Dutch repositories to seize
> right now.
>

The momentum for the Netherlands to seize is to *mandate Green OA*, at long
last (immediate institutional deposit, as a condition of funding,
employment and evaluation, whether or not OA to the deposit is embargoed)
-- instead of waiting for Dekker to mandate Fool's Gold instead (as he has
threatened to do, in two years).

*Stevan Harnad*

>  *From:* goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Stevan Harnad
>
> *Sent:* zaterdag 16 november 2013 21:50
> *To:* Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> *Cc:* LibLicense-L Discussion Forum; jisc-repositories
> *Subject:* [GOAL] The Journal Publisher Lobby in the UK & Netherlands:
> Part I
>
>
>
> The UK and the Netherlands -- not coincidentally, the home bases of Big
> Publishing for refereed research -- have issued coordinated statements in
> support of what cannot be described other than as a publisher's nocturnal
> fantasy, in the face of the unstoppable worldwide clamour for Open Access.
>
> Here are the components of the publishers' nocturnal:
>
> (1) Do whatever it takes to sustain or increase your current revenue
> streams.
>
> (2) Your current revenue streams come mainly from subscriptions.
>
> (3) Claim far and wide that everything has to be done to sustain
> publishers' subscription revenue, otherwise publishing will be destroyed,
> and with it so will peer review, and research itself.
>
> (4) With (3) as your justification, embargo Green OA self-archiving for as
> long as possible, and fight against Green OA self-archiving mandates -- or
> make sure allowable embargoes are as long as possible.
>
> (5) Profess a fervent commitment to a transition to full 100% immediate OA
> -- but Gold OA, on your terms, in such a way as to ensure that you sustain
> or increase your current revenue streams.
>
> (6) Offer hybrid Gold OA and promise not to "double-dip." That will ensure
> that your subscription revenues segue seamlessly into Gold OA revenues
> while maintaining their current levels.
>
> (7) To hasten the transition, offer even Bigger Big Deals to cover
> subscriptions at the national level (as you had always dreamt of doing)
> until all payment is safely converted (Gold) OA.
>
> (8) Encourage centralized, collective payment of Gold OA fees too, in even
> Bigger Deals, so Gold OA can continue to be treated as annual institutional
> -- preferably national -- payments rather than as piecewise payments per
> individual article.
>
> (9) Persuade governments to mandate, subsidize and prefer Gold OA rather
> than mandating Green OA
>
> (10) Make sure Green OA is perceived as delayed OA (because of your
> embargoes!), so that only Gold OA can be immediate.
>
> (11) Mobilize the minority OA advocates who are in a great hurry for
> re-use rights (CC-BY, text-mining, republication) to support you in your
> promotion of Gold OA and demotion and embargoing of Green OA.
>
> (12) Cross your fingers and hope that the research community will be
> gullible enough to buy it all.
>
> There is, however, a compeletely effective prophylactic against this
> publisher fantasy (but it has to be adopted by the research community,
> because British and Dutch Ministers are apparently too vulnerable to the
> publishing lobby):
>
> (a) Research funders and institutions worldwide adopt an immediate-deposit
> mandate, requiring, as a condition of funding, employment and evaluation,
> that all researchers deposit their final, peer-reviewed drafts in their
> institutional repositories immediately upon acceptance for publication,
> regardless of whether they are published in a subscription journal or a
> Gold OA journal -- and regardless of whether access to the deposit is made
> Green OA immediately or only after a publisher embargo.
>
> (b) Do not mandate or designate any extra money to pay for Gold OA: let
> that come from the subscription cancellation savings -- if and when Green
> OA actually releases institutions to cancel subscriptions.
>
> (c) To tide over research access needs during any embargo, make sure to
> implement the institutional repository's automated copy-request Button so
> that any user can request -- and any author can provide -- a single copy
> for research purposes with just one click each.
>  ------------------------------
>
> Now please read how fully the Dutch government fell for the publishing
> lobby's nocturnal fantasy. (Tomorrow you will see the same from the UK.)
>
> Here is a quick google translation of excerpts from Sander Dekker,
> Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands on "Commitment
> to further developments in open access scientific publication<https://t.co/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FBCEXH3YmCd&sig=4f5a508aa12ff21e4d4aea3110c4ac4b87ad91ea&uid=18504532&iid=16196ef5995a423ca9dd4975e16e0a1d&nid=136+1028&t=1>
> "
>
> *Sander Dekker, Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands:*
>
> "A clear choice in favour of Open Access publications; the transition
> process provides the necessary speed and shortens the transition period,
> thus avoiding unnecessary additional costs... .
>
> "The Green road is the form in which the author publishes an article in a
> journal. In addition, the author deposits a version of the article in Open
> Access electronic archive ( repository ). There are both discipline-based
> and university-based repositories. The system of paid subscriptions to
> journals continues. Publishers often negotiate embargo periods that can
> range from several months to several years before an article can be made OA
> through a repository. During the embargo period, only the paid version of
> the journal accessible. This constitutes a source of revenue for
> publishers. Moreover, there are publisher restrictions on the version of an
> article in the repository. Sometimes this may only be the version that has
> not yet been peer reviewd...
>
> "Netherlands is in a special position because it has a number of major
> scientific publishers within its borders. That makes dialogue between
> science and the Dutch publishing possible...
>
> "In the UK, a national committee chaired by Dame Janet Finch laid the
> foundation for the Open Access policy of the United Kingdom. The report of
> the Commission Finch serves as a solid standard . It contains a thorough
> analysis of developments and progress. The Committee notes that due to the
> major changes it is imperative that all players act together and she
> advises to achieve by focusing on Open Access journals. Transition
> Following this advice, the British government earmarked 10 million pounds
> for Open Access. The initial signs indicate that this has not led to an
> accelerated transition , but rather a continuation of the transition...
>
> "The transition to the Golden Road: My preference is for Open Access
> publishing in journals that make their articles accessible free, the Golden
> road. My aim is to achieve OA within ten years: a full transition to Open
> Access Golden Road by 2024. to achieve this, at least 60 percent of the
> scientific publications Open Access should be available in about five years
> through the Gold OA journals...
>
> "The real change can only be achieved if we work together at the
> international level with National cooperation and coordination equally
> important...
>
> "Open Access in the coming years: Dutch universities, KNAW and NWO should
> give priority to Open Access Golden road...
>
> "While the publishers have not yet made the transition to Open Access
> Golden road I prefer hybrid Open Access, where the institution pays for
> publication in a traditional journal...
>
> "For disciplines where the potential for Gold Open Access journals is
> still limited, it is possible to provide OA via the Green road...
>
> "1. Consultation with likeminded countries: I will get in touch with a
> number of like-minded countries to promote and acceleration Open Access. I
> refer primarily to the United Kingdom and Germany . This is because there
> are a large number of important commercial and academic publishers in the
> Netherlands and in these two countries i. In addition, Denmark, Finland,
> Belgium and France are leading like-minded countries...
>
> "2. Create conditions under which open access possible: An important
> momentum in the transition to Open Access publications when the scientific
> organizations and major scientific publishers agree on subscriptions to
> scientific journals . This 'big deals' always apply for some years…."
>
> "3. reports: If the parties concerned are not sufficiently committed , or
> developments in insufficient progress , the minister and I imagine that the
> obligation to publish Gold OA to be included in the Law on Higher Education
> in 2016 Open Access and Research Act (WHW )…."
>
> *Sander Dekker, Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands*
>
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