[GOAL] Open access strategy and political change: a question

[David Prosser]

Around the time of the Finch Report in the UK one of the arguments one heard against the UK attempting to be a first mover towards total open access was that it we would ‘give away’ our research to competitors (especially the Chinese - the whiff of xenophobia in the argument was always a detectable undertone) while they would keep theirs for themselves.  This would put us at a disadvantage.

It took a lot of effort to remind people that we were talking about research that had been made public (though subscription journals).  We weren’t revealing anything that hadn’t been revealed before, just making it more accessible.  (We also pointed out that countries such as the US and China were publishing more in open access journals than the UK was.)

So I guess my fear is that if some of us are moving in a more isolationist direction, one in which we are much more concerned about our positions in trade negotiations (and trade wars) and ‘protecting’ our assets, then perhaps that agreement might be seen again.  Ironically, the people who will perhaps argue most strongly against it (and who have the ear of government through powerful lobbying machines) are those who are seeing massive increases in their revenues from hybrid open access fees!

David




On 19 Jan 2017, at 14:25, Heather Morrison <Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca<mailto:Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca>> wrote:

I am not an expert on politics, so apologies if my assumptions here are naive:

It appears to me that some governments, notably the US and the UK, have undergone a political shift from a trend towards globalization towards protectionism / emphasis on the local. Whether this is a good idea or not is an important political question. Many people will  have strong feelings about this matter, and this will include people in the OA movement as well as those we work with.

Assuming that it is the case that some of our governments are inclined to focus on the local, what are some strategies to advance open access that would fit with the local-minded government?

My first thoughts are that institutional repository OA policy and supporting local publishing (for us, ideally OA publishing), would seem to fit. Perhaps some politicians would see the benefits of sharing our own work openly as a display of the strength of the country?

My two bits. What do others think?

Heather
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