Open Access Archivangelism

In their press release the UK Green Party announces that it will vote (among other things) to "require Open Access [OA] publishing for publicly-funded academies."

Since one cannot impose a business model, but only encourage it, and try to create conditions favorable to it, this vote to require OA publishing (the "golden" road to OA) is at best only a symbolic token and at worst quixotic.

It is also ironic that the Green party makes no mention of support for the "green" road to OA, which is OA self-archiving, by their own authors, of all articles published in non-OA (and OA) journals. This, unlike OA publishing itself (gold), (1) can be required, (2) has been recommended as a UK policy by the UK Select Committee on Science and Technology (but not implemented by the government), (3) is now the proposed policy of the UK research funding councils, RCUK (Research Councils UK) with a projected implementation date of October 2005, (4) would result in 100% OA for all UK research output if adopted, and (5) would serve as a model for the greening of the rest of the research world, as advocated by (6) the Berlin Declaration on Open Access and the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

The publisher lobby (ALPSP and STM) is arguing for further delay in implementing this "green" policy on the grounds that (i) it may damage their revenues and (ii) it is an attempt to impose a change in business model on them. All objective evidence is contrary to i; and ii is incorrect (gold is a business model, for publishers; green is merely a condition on receiving funding, for researchers).

Over 90% of journals are already green on author self-archiving; it is the authors who are the OA retardant, not the publishers: only about 15% of authors have so far bothered to go, even though the light is green. That is what the RCUK green policy is intended to remedy. It would be both foolish and churlish to try instead to force the journals to take that further step on behalf of the sluggish authors, by going gold, with all the risk and sacrifice accruing to the publishers and all the benefits accruing to the authors.

The Green Party should be voting to "require OA self-archiving for [authors employed by] publicly-funded academies" -- an implementable green policy that will swiftly and certainly generate 100% OA -- rather than tilting (out of "gold fever") at imposed business models that will only lead to years more of delay and needless wrangling, meanwhile failing to achieve the desired and reachable immediate result (already long overdue).

Stevan Harnad