<div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Bravo to Fred Friend Friend for his trenchant account of the UK/OA saga: "</span><a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/10/17/uk-government-manage-to-spoil-open-access/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">How did the UK government manage to spoil something as good as open access?</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">". </span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">(Only one item was missing from his list of 9 perverse effects of the Willetts/Finch sell-out -- that it also runs roughshod over UK authors' freedom of choice as to which journal to publish in -- but Fred has informed me that it was in his original list and had to be cut to meet the word-limit!)</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Whether or not BIS and the UK goverrnment have the good sense to follow the wise and timely advice of their own </span><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1040-UK-BIS-Committee-2013-Report-on-Open-Access.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">2013 BIS Select Committee</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> on how to repair the RCUK OA Mandate, nothing prevents </span><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/985-With-New-REF-Mandate-Proposal,-UK-Rejoins-OA-Vanguard.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">HEFCE</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> and </span><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/991-.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">RCUK</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> from following that advice (just as they followed the advice of the </span><a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39903.htm" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">2004 Select Committee</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">and mandated OA even though the government rejected the advice).</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">And irrespective of any of this, nothing prevents UK researchers from publishing in their journal of choice and depositing their final drafts in their institutional repositories immediately upon acceptance for publication, as Fred suggests, releasing them either immediately as OA, or after an embargo of 6 or 12 months. </span><a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/rcuk-fails-to-end-green-embargo-confusion/news/research-councils-green-open-access-policy-will-not-be-enforced/2001275.article" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">RCUK has already stated that it will not be enforcing the Green OA embargoes for at least the five years</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">. </span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">(And meanwhile the repositories' facilitated </span><a href="https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/RequestCopy" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">copy-request Button</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> will be making it possible for authors to provide </span><a href="http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268511/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">individual copies</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> of embargoed deposits to requestors for research purposes with one extra click per request, if they wish -- if, but only if, the paper is deposited </span><a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september12/harnad/09harnad.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">immediately</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> upon publication rather than after the embargo.)</span><br>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div style><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><b>Stevan Harnad</b></span></div>
<div><a href="http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1065-.html">http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1065-.html</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br>
</span></div></div>