Saturday, March 3. 2012
Plan C for Open Access: Flea Powder
Comments on Richard Poynder's interview of Claudio Aspesi in Open and Shut: "Scholarly Publishing: Where is Plan B?"1. Research libraries cannot, need not and will not cancel (important) journals until all or almost all their contents are freely accessible to their users by some other means.(It is this optimal and inevitable outcome for research and researchers that the publishers' lobby is doing its best to forestall as long as it possibly can. But it's entirely up to the research community how long they allow them to do it. As long as they do, it amounts to allowing the flea on its tail to wag the research/dog…)
2. Boycott-threatening authors cannot, need not and will not stop publishing in or refereeing for their best journals: It is neither necessary nor realistic. There are easier and better ways to make those journals' contents freely accessible.
3. Researchers cannot, need not and will not stop serving on the editorial boards of their best journals. It is neither necessary nor realistic. There are easier and better ways to make those journals' contents freely accessible.
4. Research and researchers cannot, need not and will not abandon peer review. It is neither necessary nor realistic. There are easier and better ways to make journals' contents freely accessible.
5. Journals cannot, need not and will not convert to Gold Open Access publishing today: That would simply make OA as unaffordable as subscription access (at current prices).
6. What those who are preoccupied with journal pricing and economics keep overlooking is that the one and only reason it matters so much that journals are overpriced and unaffordable is that there is no other way for would-be users to access their contents.
7. Hence only one course of action is realistic, feasible and makes sense: It will remedy the accessibility problem completely and it will eventually drive down journal expenses and prices as well as induce a conversion to Gold OA publishing at an affordable rate.
8. That course of action is for universities and research funders to mandate Green OA self-archiving.
9. Once Green OA self-archiving becomes universal because it is universally mandated, the research accessibility problem is solved.
10. Once the research accessibility problem is solved, journal affordability is no longer a life-or-death matter: libraries can cancel unaffordable journals because their contents are freely accessible to their users by some other means.
11. Once post-Green-OA cancellations make subscriptions unsustainable for meeting publishing costs, publishers will downsize to just the cost of peer review alone, offloading access provision and archiving onto institutional OA repositories, and converting to Gold OA publishing.
12. Universities will then have the funds to pay the much lower costs of peer review alone out of their windfall subscription cancelation savings.
Harnad, S. (2007) The Green Road to Open Access: A Leveraged Transition. In: Anna Gacs. The Culture of Periodicals from the Perspective of the Electronic Age. L'Harmattan. 99-106.
Harnad, S. (2009) The PostGutenberg Open Access Journal. In: Cope, B. & Phillips, A (Eds.) The Future of the Academic Journal. Chandos.
Harnad, S. (2010) No-Fault Peer Review Charges: The Price of Selectivity Need Not Be Access Denied or Delayed. D-Lib Magazine 16 (7/8).
Harnad, S. (2010) The Immediate Practical Implication of the Houghton Report: Provide Green Open Access Now. Prometheus, 28 (1). pp. 55-59. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/18514
Harnad, S. (2011) Open Access to Research: Changing Researcher Behavior Through University and Funder Mandates. JEDEM Journal of Democracy and Open Government 3 (1): 33-41.
Harnad, Stevan (2011) Open Access Is a Research Community Matter, Not a Publishing Community Matter. Lifelong Learning in Europe.
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Mike Taylor asks : "Once Green OA self-archiving becomes universal ..."
... then publishers will prohibit it.
This is such an obvious objection that I'm sure you have addressed it many times before, but I've only started seeing your posts relatively recently and it's not an issue that I've seen you mention.
What is your solution?
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Reply from Stevan Harnad :
ZENO'S PARALYSIS : SYMPTOM #32
The reply is as old as the BOAI Self-Archiving FAQ (over 10 years). It's the 32nd symptom of "Zeno's Paralysis":
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32.Poisoned
So stop worrying pre-emptively and mandate Green OA. Over a decade has already been lost by needless worries that turn into self-fulfilling prophecies (and paresis).
... then publishers will prohibit it.
This is such an obvious objection that I'm sure you have addressed it many times before, but I've only started seeing your posts relatively recently and it's not an issue that I've seen you mention.
What is your solution?
--------
Reply from Stevan Harnad :
ZENO'S PARALYSIS : SYMPTOM #32
The reply is as old as the BOAI Self-Archiving FAQ (over 10 years). It's the 32nd symptom of "Zeno's Paralysis":
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32.Poisoned
So stop worrying pre-emptively and mandate Green OA. Over a decade has already been lost by needless worries that turn into self-fulfilling prophecies (and paresis).
ZENO'S PARALYSIS : SYMPTOM #32
The reply is as old as the BOAI Self-Archiving FAQ (over 10 years). It's the 32nd symptom of "Zeno's Paralysis":
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32.Poisoned
So stop worrying pre-emptively and mandate Green OA. Over a decade has already been lost by needless worries that turn into self-fulfilling prophecies (and paresis).
The reply is as old as the BOAI Self-Archiving FAQ (over 10 years). It's the 32nd symptom of "Zeno's Paralysis":
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32.Poisoned
So stop worrying pre-emptively and mandate Green OA. Over a decade has already been lost by needless worries that turn into self-fulfilling prophecies (and paresis).
Alex Holcombe : How about not just university and research funders mandating, but also journals? That is, could a journal editorial board mandate that all manuscripts must be Green OA archived by their authors? As that would violate the interests of the journal's publisher, you'd think they might prohibit it, but probably they haven't thought to include that in their publishing contract. A requirement for Green OA self-archiving could be a condition of publication in much the same way that some journals now require that the underlying data be made available.
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Reply by Stevan Harnad :
YOU HAVE ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION
Publishers don't and won'd mandate Green OA self-archiving by their authors because it is in conflict with their interests.
They will, however, allow it, because appearing to oppose OA is also against their interests.
See:
"Elsevier & IOP Still Fully Green & Angelic: Just Ignore Incoherent Distinctions"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/822-.html
Stevan Harnad
--------
Reply by Stevan Harnad :
YOU HAVE ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION
Publishers don't and won'd mandate Green OA self-archiving by their authors because it is in conflict with their interests.
They will, however, allow it, because appearing to oppose OA is also against their interests.
See:
"Elsevier & IOP Still Fully Green & Angelic: Just Ignore Incoherent Distinctions"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/822-.html
Stevan Harnad
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