Lots of valid viewpoints. We can agree, we can disagree. But somewhere there needs to be some action. My suggestion is aimed at top-level OA policy-making, at updated advice from BOAI, and from governments and funders agitating for open access, such as in the UK.
Broad policy should be set to allow two specific routes to OA: 1 Gold-only journals, CC-BY only 2 Green (best model policy to be specified, no publisher fudges allowed) Do NOT allow 3 Hybrid journals. Hybrid journals are 'experiments'; it's time to decide green or gold, or call the publishers' bluff. Without this the advisory committees will be mired. I believe the political will is there. Now is the moment for clear decisive action. The objective is clear - open access. We should not let the common desire for open access to divide. Remove non-OA from the equation and the two routes will take care of themselves. Steve Hitchcock WAIS Group, Building 32 School of Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK Email: sh...@ecs.soton.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevehit Connotea: http://www.connotea.org/user/stevehit Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 9379 Fax: +44 (0)23 8059 9379 On 15 May 2012, at 21:28, Peter Murray-Rust wrote: > On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Eric F. Van de Velde > <eric.f.vandeve...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > If Open Access is the only goal then all we need to do is follow Stevan's > advice. However, the goal of Open Access itself is to change the scholarly > information system into a system suitable for the 21st century. In this > sense, Green Open Access is an incremental change, which is expected to lead > to more fundamental changes over time. It is disheartening to witness how > hard it is to implement this incremental change. > > It is also clear that Green OA fixes our view of publishing in the last > century. It does not encourage change. It holds the "paper" (sic) as the > element of value and the publisher as an essential component and legislates > for the continuance of both. It also builds in inefficiency into the system. > > However, it does not matter. Major disruption will come. When it comes, it > will be sudden and chaotic. We have witnessed it before. It has been > documented extensively. Most people in technology have read Clayton > Christensen's seminal work The Innovator's Dilemma, and whoever has not > should do as soon as possible. We are right in the run-up to a classical > disruption where a low-margin/low-overhead business replaces a > high-margin/high-overhead business. Initially, the low-margin business is > sneered at because it offers low quality. By the time the high-margin > business realizes it is in trouble it is too late. > > I completely agree. The tensions in the earthquake zone are palpable. Among > the most obvious ones are: > * the increasing failure of the academic-publisher system to follow the rapid > development of technology. Sending manuscripts off to be retyped must be one > of the most inefficient activities on the planet. > * no evidence of the social web revolution > * the impatience of the younger generation with the closed minds of the > present. > > These are additional to the other tensions of: > * financial strain in the system > * the mismatch between traditional citation analysis and more modern forms of > assessment > * the voice of the scholarly poor > > There are more, but that's enough. > > > > This disruption (or one similar to it) is inevitable. The only question is > when it will happen, and the precise path it will take. > > Yes - anyone getting it right and backing it stands to become rich and > famous. There is a huge opportunity for well-directed investment. > > P. > > > -- > Peter Murray-Rust > Reader in Molecular Informatics > Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry > University of Cambridge > CB2 1EW, UK > +44-1223-763069 > _______________________________________________ > GOAL mailing list > GOAL@eprints.org > http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
