While I think the mixture of sponsors should ensure a fair balance (though it includes no organisation passionately opposed to OA!), I agree that the questionnaire is liable to obtain meaningless responses as it totally blurs the distinction between self-archiving and publication in OA journals
Sally Morris
-----Original Message-----
From: American Scientist Open Access Forum [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG] On Behalf Of Andrew A. Adams
Sent: 13 May 2010 12:15
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: FWD: Please share your opinion on open access publishing
The EU-funded SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project sent me a 
request to take part in a questionnaire. Despite my misgivings of such a 
project including as one of the partners such a self-interested party as one 
of the world's largest academic publishers (foxes and hen-houses come to mind 
here - nothing wrong with such organisations being involved as research 
subjects but being core members of the research team is clearly a conflict of 
interest) and despite my dislike of even the title (open access publishing, 
instead of the real topic which needs research, i.e. open access) let alone 
the description of work, I've taken part in this survey. I included making my 
views on their wrong-headed and biased questioning focussing purely on Gold 
OA clear in the free-text fields available. See the details of the survey 
below.
AAA.
------- Forwarded Message
Subject: Please share your opinion on open access publishing
From: Springer <springeralerts_at_springer.delivery.net>
 Your views on open access publishing are needed! 
Springer has partnered with CERN, The Max Planck Society, and others in the 
European Commission-funded project SOAP – Study of Open Access Publishing.
Please support the project by completing a short survey on open access: 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/soap_survey_a  
   
   
   
   
   
   More about SOAP  
   
   The Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) analyzes researchers’ attitudes 
towards, knowledge of and experiences with open access. The resulting 
insights and recommendations will be shared with the European Commission, 
publishers, research funding agencies, libraries and researchers.
Your contribution will be very valuable in shaping the public discourse on 
open access, and we would be very grateful if you could take 10-15 minutes to 
complete this survey.???
   
   
   Thank you in advance for your help!???   
   
    Best regards,   
   
   Bettina Goerner 
Manager Open Access  
------- End of Forwarded Message
Received on Fri May 14 2010 - 12:31:44 BST