<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear All<br><br>As many of you know, the European Commission has funded a project - PEER - over the past few years to look at what effect, if any, green OA through embargoed access would have on publishers - both in terms of downloads at the publisher sites and subscriptions. <br><br>Today in Brussels the PEER project reported on its findings. The meeting opened with a flying visit from the Commissioner for Info Soc and Vice President of the Commission, Neelie Kroes. Madam Kroes is a strong supporter of OA and gave a straight message to the audience - Open Access is not a luxury, but a necessity; OA is vital for growth and sharing knowledge benefits society and the economy; and traditional ways of doing things have no favoured status - we all need to change. She said that the EC is working on OA recommendation to all the member states.<br><br>After that, we began to get the results. Others will write in more details I'm sure, complete with caveats and health warnings, but the headlines are:<br><br>1. There is no evidence of any harm to publishers as a result of embargoed green OA<br>2. There is evidence of increased total usage through green OA <br>3. There is evidence that green OA through the PEER project actually drives usage at the publisher site.<br><br>An economic analysis also suggested that the cost of organising peer review is $250 per submission - an interesting factoid.<br><br>More details of the PEER project can be found at <a href="http://www.peerproject.eu/">http://www.peerproject.eu/</a> while Madam Kroes' speech is at:<div><br></div><div><a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/392&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en">http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/392&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en</a> </div><div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes</div><div><br></div><div>David</div><div><br><div>
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