<div dir="ltr">I thought Cary Nelson's article was astute and overdue.<div><br></div><div>Joe Esposito</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Stevan Harnad <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:amsciforum@gmail.com" target="_blank">amsciforum@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><blockquote style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Commentary on "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/11/15/essay-impact-open-access-requirements-academic-freedom" style="color:rgb(0,51,102)" target="_blank"><strong>Open Access and Academic Freedom</strong></a>" in <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102)" target="_blank">Inside Higher Ed</a> 15 November 2013, by <a href="http://www.aaup.org/import-tags/cary-nelson" style="color:rgb(0,51,102)" target="_blank">Cary Nelson</a>, former national president of the <a href="http://www.aaup.org/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102)" target="_blank">American Association of University Professors</a><hr>
</blockquote><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">If, in the print-on-paper era, it was not a constraint on academic freedom that universities and research funders required, as a condition of funding or employment, that researchers conduct and publish research -- rather than put it in a desk drawer -- so it could be read, used, applied and built upon by all users whose institutions could afford to subscribe to the journal in which it was published ("</span><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&lr=&q=harnad%20OR%20Harnad%20OR%20archivangelism+blogurl:http://openaccess.eprints.org/&ie=UTF-8&tbm=blg&tbs=qdr:m&num=100&c2coff=1&safe=active#c2coff=1&hl=en&lr=&q=perish+blogurl:http%3A%2F%2Fopenaccess.eprints.org%2F&safe=active&tbm=blg" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">publish or perish</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">"), then it is not a constraint on academic freedom in the online era that universities and research funders require, as a condition of funding or employment, that researchers make their research accessible online to all its potential users rather than just those whose institutions could afford to subscribe to the journal in which it was published ("</span><a href="https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=nCiGUumJI4qIygH8u4GABA#q=%22publish+or+perish%22+%22self-archive+to+flourish%22" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">self-archive to flourish</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">However, two kinds of Open Access (OA) mandates are indeed constraints on academic freedom:</span><blockquote style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<strong>1.</strong> <em>any mandate that constrains the researcher's choice of which journal to publish in -- other than to require that it be of the highest quality whose peer-review standards the research can meet<br>
</em><br><strong>2.</strong> <em>any mandate that requires the researcher to pay to publish (if the author does not wish to, or does not have the funds)</em><br></blockquote><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The </span><a href="https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=nCiGUumJI4qIygH8u4GABA#q=%22immediate-deposit%22+mandate" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">immediate-deposit/optional-access (ID/OA) mandate</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> requires authors to deposit their final refereed draft in their </span><a href="http://roar.eprints.org/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">institutional repository</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> immediately upon acceptance for publication, regardless of which journal they choose to publish in, and regardless of whether they choose to comply with an OA embargo (if any) on the part of the journal. (If so, the access to the deposit can be set as Closed Access rather than Open Access during the embargo, and the repository software has a facilitated copy-request </span><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&lr=&q=harnad%20OR%20Harnad%20OR%20archivangelism+blogurl:http://openaccess.eprints.org/&ie=UTF-8&tbm=blg&tbs=qdr:m&num=100&c2coff=1&safe=active#c2coff=1&hl=en&lr=&q=Button+blogurl%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fopenaccess.eprints.org%2F&safe=active&tbas=0&tbm=blg" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">Button</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">, allowing would-be users to request a copy for research purposes with one click, and allowing the author the free choice to comply or not comply, likewise with one click.)</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">Since OA is beneficial to researchers -- because it </span><a href="http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">maximizes research downloads and citations</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">, which universities and funders now count, along with publications, in evaluating and rewarding research output -- why do researchers need mandates at all? Because they are </span><a href="http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#38-worries" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">afraid of publishers</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> -- afraid their publisher will not publish their research if they make it OA, or even afraid they will be prosecuted for copyright infringement.</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">So OA </span><a href="http://roarmap.eprints.org/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">mandates</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> are needed to embolden authors to provide OA, knowing they have the support of their institutions and funders. And the ID/OA mandate is immune to publisher embargoes. Over ten years of </span><a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october00/10inbrief.html#HARNAD" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">experience</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> (of "performing a useful service by giving faculty a vehicle for voluntary self-archiving") have by now shown definitively that most researchers will not </span><a href="http://www.infotoday.com/it/oct04/poynder.shtml" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">self-archive</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> unless it is mandatory. (The only exceptions are some fields of physics and computer science where researchers provide OA spontaneously, unmandated.) So what is needed is a no-option immediate-self-archiving mandate, but with leeway on when to make the deposit OA. This is indeed in a sense "optional Green OA," but the crucial component is that the deposit itself is mandatory.</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">Funding is a red herring. Most universities have already invested in creating and maintaining institutional repositories, for multiple purposes, OA being only one of them, and the OA sectors are vastly under-utilized -- except if mandated (at no extra cost).</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">The ID/OA mandate requires no change in copyright law, licensing or ownership of research output. Another red herring.</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">There are no relevant discipline differences for ID/OA either. Another red herring. And the need for and benefits of OA do not apply only to rare exceptions, but to all refereed research journal articles.</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">OA mandates apply only to refereed journal articles, not books. Another red herring (covering half of Cary Nelson's article!).</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">As OA mandates are now growing globally, across all disciplines and institutions, it is nonsense to imagine that researchers will decide where to work on the basis of trying to escape an OA mandate -- and with ID/OA there isn't even anything for them to want to escape from.</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">The ID/OA mandate also moots the difference between journal articles and book chapters. And it applies to all disciplines, and publishers, whether commercial, learned-society, or university.</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">Refereed journal publishing will adapt, quite naturally to Green OA. For now, some publishers are trying to forestall having to adapt to the OA era, by embargoing OA. Let them try. ID/OA mandates are immune to publisher OA embargoes, but publishers are not immune to the rising demand for OA: </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">Paying for Gold OA today is paying for </span><a href="https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=nyyGUseBCsbhyQHdtYDIAQ#q=%22fool's+gold%22+harnad+" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">Fool's Gold</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">: Research funds are already scarce. Institutions cannot cancel must-have journal subscriptions. So Gold OA payment is double-payment, over and above subscriptions. And hybrid (subscription + Gold) publishers can even double-dip. </span><a href="http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/258705/1/resolution.htm#4.2" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">If and when</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> global Green OA makes journal subscriptions unsustainable, journals will downsize, jettisoning products and services (print edition, online edition, access-provision, archiving) rendered obsolete by the worldwide network of Green OA repositories) and they will </span><a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/13309/" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">convert</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> to </span><a href="https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=nyyGUseBCsbhyQHdtYDIAQ#q=%22fair+gold%22+harnad+" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">Fair Gold</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">, paid for </span><a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july10/harnad/07harnad.html" style="color:rgb(0,51,102);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">peer review alone</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">, out of a fraction of the institutions windfall subscription cancellation savings.</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">It is not for the research community to continue depriving itself of OA while trying to 2nd-guess how publishers will adapt. That -- and not OA mandates -- would be a real constraint on academic freedom: </span><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&lr=&q=harnad%20OR%20Harnad%20OR%20archivangelism+blogurl:http://openaccess.eprints.org/&ie=UTF-8&tbm=blg&tbs=qdr:m&num=100&c2coff=1&safe=active#c2coff=1&hl=en&lr=&q=tail+wag+dog+blogurl:http://openaccess.eprints.org/&safe=active&tbas=0&tbm=blg" style="font-size:13px;font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" target="_blank">The publishing tail must not be allowed to continue to wag the research dog</a><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">.</span><br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Joseph J. Esposito<br>Processed Media<br><a href="mailto:espositoj@gmail.com" target="_blank">espositoj@gmail.com</a><br>@josephjesposito<br>+Joseph Esposito
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