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Jan, All,<br>
I've added a few more comments here and there, but I really can't go
on with this any longer - the more I read this document the more I'm
laughing at it, which strongly impedes my ability to keep the
comments serious - despite that subject matter is very serious and
there are many things to comment on. Most of my comments can be
found on pages 24 and 25, but already in 2nd or 3rd of them I
completely lost the sense of solemnity (this was publishers'
marketing stuff, so please excuse me the bits of sarcasm). Hope it
will be useful for someone, anyway.<br>
<br>
As to Utopia Docs, it's a perfect tool for commenting this type of
documents and might also prove useful in peer-reviewing - so thanks
for the link.<br>
One question: how are the comments updated? When I have the PDF open
and someone else adds comments in the same time, do I see them
instantly or have to restart the application? I use the older Linux
version.<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
Marcin<br>
<br>
<br>
On 06/21/2012 06:44 PM, Jan Velterop wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:583D3E28-8527-4A85-B93E-768195F1C4BD@gmail.com"
type="cite">Marcin Wojnarski has just added some comments to the
PDF of the Finch Report (at 'executive summary' in the full
version) via Utopia Documents. He asked me: "Why don't you send
info to GOAL list about this possibility? I think many people
might be interested, as it's a very convenient way to share
comments - and to put all one's comments in a single place."
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So here it is: If you open the PDF of the report in Utopia
Documents, you can comment on any portion of the text and submit
them. There is no need for the comments or for the PDF to be
sent around. It's just like magic, though the magic trick in
this case is that the comments are being held, with information
on what in the PDF is commented on, and separately from the PDF,
which is not being held, on the Utopia Documents server and then
shown, on the fly, if the PDF is opened with Utopia Documents.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>You can add your own comments, of course. Utopia Documents is
free and available, for Mac and Windows (an older Linux version
is available and a new one is expected this summer) from <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://utopiadocs.com">http://utopiadocs.com</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jan Velterop
<div><br>
<div>
<div>On 20 Jun 2012, at 12:43, Marcin Wojnarski wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
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charset=ISO-8859-1">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Below is my comment
posted originally on Cameron Neylon's <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://cameronneylon.net/blog/first-thoughts-on-the-finch-report-good-steps-but-missed-opportunities/#comment-562279021">blog</a>.
Can be of interest for GOAL.<br>
<br>
<p><i>On publicity front the Finch Report is a good
news, as it restates that Open Access is the way to
go.<br>
On the more important policy-making front, it's a
complete failure and more of a harm than an aid in
establishing universal OA. Being the govt, I'd throw
away this entire report and start again from
scratch, but with <u>renowned OA expert</u> as a
leader of the group and no publishers on the board
(let them write a separate report if they wish). My
general feeling is that Dame Janet Finch either
didn't withstand the big pressure of corporate
interests; or she completely misunderstood the aim
of the study and her role as a chair. </i></p>
<p><i>The report contains very few quantitative facts -
especially when it comes to drafting conclusions for
the policy - but lots of gobbledygook, doubletalk
and publishers' marketing stuff aimed at obstructing
OA. Even worse, it doesn't deliver on its essential
and most important promise: to give <u>policy
guidelines</u> for govt on how to make OA into
mainstream. Instead, it provides a long list of "Key
actions" (see Executive Summary) which are a perfect
example of buzzword-compliant non-speak: <br>
"Make a clear commitment", "Put in place
arrangements", "Keep under review", "Renew efforts
to sustain and enhance", "Establish effective and
flexible mechanisms", "Provide clear information",
"continue to develop", consider, discuss, extend,
ensure, rationalise, examine, find ways, support,
... and do it "carefully" and "in consultation"! -
that's a brief but complete summary of what Dame
Finch recommends to the government. </i></p>
<i>I think they should withdraw her remuneration,
because she simply didn't do her job. And then make a
new study, hopefully more insightful than this one.</i><br>
<br>
------------<br>
Besides this report being incomplete and sloppy, it also
poses a serious threat to OA policy-making, because up
to now it is the most formalized and authoritative voice
of scientific community and thus the government can't
just ignore it. The OA community should make a very
clear and unambiguous statement addressed to the govt
saying that this report is bad, <u>non-actionable</u>
in terms of policy making, and doesn't have acceptance
of the community.<br>
<br>
BTW, note a funny thing: Dame Finch doesn't provide any
clear plan of what has to be done, but she knows (!)
that this will cost £50-60M. How can it be?!<br>
<br>
<br>
Marcin Wojnarski<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
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