Re: The Green and Gold Roads to Open Access

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 15:22:08 +0000

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Les Carr wrote:

> It was very interesting to see some publishers' reactions to OA 1 & 2
> at a meeting I attended recently. The discussion I was present for came
> down clearly on the side of Open Archives as a preferable (and stable)
> way forward, even describing it as a "safety valve" on an overheated
> system. My impression was that it may 'buy enough time' to allow
> publishing practices and business models to adapt (and compete!) on a
> more realistic time scale than those dictated by artificial solutions
> from funding organisations.

But that is *precisely* what the "green" road (BOAI-1) is! A safety-valve
on an overheated system: open-access is needed *right now*, but 24,000
journals are certainly not ready or able to go "golden" (BOAI-2) right
now (nor is anyone in a position to subsidise their doing so, right
now). The green road can provide that open access (100%) right now --
with the help, right now, of the publishers, who are certainly in a
better position to go green than to go gold!

This leaves publishers time to adapt -- while at the same time providing
immediate open access for researchers, right now. And as publishers adapt
(rethink what "added-values" are still worth adding, and what costs
are better worth cutting), it is possible that publisher toll-revenue
losses -- and corresponding university toll-savings -- *might* (I repeat,
*might*) begin to occur and grow, thereby simultaneously (1) providing the
publishers with the impetus to downsize and convert to gold in order
to keep meeting costs *and* (2) providing the institutions with the revenue
out of which to pay those costs!
http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/harnad.html#B1
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399we152.htm

It is neither a coincidence nor a capitulation (on either side) that
publishers are looking more favorably on BOAI-1. It is part of the
natural logic and pragmatics of the situation:
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif

    "Open Access by Peaceful Evolution" International Association
    of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers "Universal
    Access: By Evolution or Revolution?" Amsterdam, 15-16 May 2003.
    http://www.stm-assoc.org/infosharing/springconference-prog.html
    [URL apparently dead: there may still be a cached one somewhere!]

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2003_12_07_fosblogarchive.html#a107089736737848156

> There was also discussion about librarians and academics changing their
> assumptions and expectations, and whether institutional librarians may
> have to relinquish collections management in the serials world.

Eventually, perhaps, digital librarianship will no longer be about buy-in
collections and collection-management (at least insofar as peer-reviewed
journals are concerned). But for now, whilst they are still paying the
tolls, it's still about managing digital journal collections.

    "Rethinking 'Collections' and Selection in the PostGutenberg Age
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/1796.html

If libraries want to help in the creation and curation of
open-access archives for their own institutional output of published
peer-reviewed-journal articles, they can and should. But to do that it
is not enough for them to create archives and fret about preservation:
They have to realize that content-provision by their institute's
researchers is what is needed, that it will only be provided for
the sake of the researcher's own impact, and that the carrot/stick of
publish-or-perish will probably be needed (from university administrators
and government research-funders) in order to induce researchers to do it.

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0022.gif

Stevan Harnad

NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist Open Access Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
    http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
    Post discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org

Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
    http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
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http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0021.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0024.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif



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Received on Fri Dec 12 2003 - 15:22:08 GMT

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