Stevan is absolutely right that all we need is immediate deposit in archives. Gold policies are counter-productive.
Gold policies designed to protect the interests of large high-profit commercial publishers are particularly likely to be counter-productive. One reason is that any such mandate is likely to increase costs, immediately for the mandating country and overall for the scholarly publishing industry. Possible counter-strategies: Do the countries involved have policies requiring procurement from the lowest bidder? If so, then perhaps gold OA should work to the benefit of the likes of PeerJ, PLoS ONE, Hindawi, not the big commercial publishers. The Elsevier open access license agreement illustrates why what looks like gold OA may not be gold OA at all, e.g. even with CC-BY Elsevier asks for an exclusive license to publish: http://www.elsevier.com/journal-authors/open-access/open-access-policies/author-agreement Let's start talking with faculty and research funding agencies about where they want money spent: to fund research and academic salaries, or to fuel 30-40% profit margins for a few large commercial scholarly publishers? Hints: how does the gold OA APCs of the large commercial publishers compare with funding typically provided to grad students, whether through scholarships, research or teaching assistantships? What about funding for part-time teachers? How does the APC cost compare with what is typically paid for a teacher to teach a course? I talked about this a bit (focusing on scholarly publishing per se rather than OA APCs) in my OA week talk at the University of Regina. As an example of this kind of analysis, consider the EBSCO serials price projections for 2014, in which publishers are expected to increase prices 6-8%: http://www2.ebsco.com/en-us/Documents/PriceProjections2014.pdf An 8% increase on a million-dollar contract (there are universities paying Elsevier much more than this) is $160,000. That's enough to fund a faculty salary or two - and that's just a typical one-year increase on top of the 30-40% profit margin. If we're cutting faculty positions while paying these kinds of increases, in effect we're cutting researcher jobs to fuel tiny percentage increases in already large profit margins for scholarly publishers. best, Heather Morrison On 2013-11-16, at 5:48 PM, Gerritsma, Wouter wrote: > @Stevan, > > Yes Stevan the Dutch secretary of education his letter has quite a bit of the > Finch tone in it. But there are also some opportunities in his letter for > repositories. Dekker actually asks for exact figures on OA in the Netherlands. > > "To obtain insight into the situation I request the universities, KNAW and > NWO to provide numbers on Open Access publications through the various > clearly defined variants of OA." > > In the Netherlands we have of course Narcis http://www.narcis.nl already, a > comprehensive repository of nearly all OA publications in the Netherlands. > But counting OA publications only is not sufficient. That is a small mistake > in Dekker his letter. What is less well known is that all Dutch universities > have to report to ministry of Education all the scientific output as well. > This happens through the > VSNUhttp://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/Feiten_en_Cijfers/Scientific_Research_Agreed_Definitions__def_2011_IRRH-20110624.pdf > > > If due to this letter of Dekker it was decided that all reports on the output > of the Dutch Science system to the ministry would be based on the full > registration of all output registered in Narcis, on top of all OA > publications it already registers, the underlying repositories would be in a > much better position. If only Narcis takes up its responsibility and makes > reports along the lines I did nearly 2 years ago > http://wowter.net/2012/02/10/a-census-of-open-access-repositories-in-the-netherlands/ > the repository infrastructure in the Netherlands would be reinforced as > well. > > So apart from the fact that OA is on the political agenda in the Netherlands, > there is an important momentum for Dutch repositories to seize right now. > > All the best > Wouter > > > Wouter Gerritsma > Team leader research support > Information Specialist – Bibliometrician > Wageningen UR Library > PO box 9100 > 6700 HA Wageningen > The Netherlands > ++31 3174 83052 > wouter.gerrit...@wur.nl > wageningenur.nl/library > @wowter > wowter.net > > > From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of > Stevan Harnad > Sent: zaterdag 16 november 2013 21:50 > To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) > Cc: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum; jisc-repositories > Subject: [GOAL] The Journal Publisher Lobby in the UK & Netherlands: Part I > > The UK and the Netherlands -- not coincidentally, the home bases of Big > Publishing for refereed research -- have issued coordinated statements in > support of what cannot be described other than as a publisher's nocturnal > fantasy, in the face of the unstoppable worldwide clamour for Open Access. > > Here are the components of the publishers' nocturnal: > (1) Do whatever it takes to sustain or increase your current revenue streams. > > (2) Your current revenue streams come mainly from subscriptions. > > (3) Claim far and wide that everything has to be done to sustain publishers' > subscription revenue, otherwise publishing will be destroyed, and with it so > will peer review, and research itself. > > (4) With (3) as your justification, embargo Green OA self-archiving for as > long as possible, and fight against Green OA self-archiving mandates -- or > make sure allowable embargoes are as long as possible. > > (5) Profess a fervent commitment to a transition to full 100% immediate OA -- > but Gold OA, on your terms, in such a way as to ensure that you sustain or > increase your current revenue streams. > > (6) Offer hybrid Gold OA and promise not to "double-dip." That will ensure > that your subscription revenues segue seamlessly into Gold OA revenues while > maintaining their current levels. > > (7) To hasten the transition, offer even Bigger Big Deals to cover > subscriptions at the national level (as you had always dreamt of doing) until > all payment is safely converted (Gold) OA. > > (8) Encourage centralized, collective payment of Gold OA fees too, in even > Bigger Deals, so Gold OA can continue to be treated as annual institutional > -- preferably national -- payments rather than as piecewise payments per > individual article. > > (9) Persuade governments to mandate, subsidize and prefer Gold OA rather than > mandating Green OA > > (10) Make sure Green OA is perceived as delayed OA (because of your > embargoes!), so that only Gold OA can be immediate. > > (11) Mobilize the minority OA advocates who are in a great hurry for re-use > rights (CC-BY, text-mining, republication) to support you in your promotion > of Gold OA and demotion and embargoing of Green OA. > > (12) Cross your fingers and hope that the research community will be gullible > enough to buy it all. > There is, however, a compeletely effective prophylactic against this > publisher fantasy (but it has to be adopted by the research community, > because British and Dutch Ministers are apparently too vulnerable to the > publishing lobby): > (a) Research funders and institutions worldwide adopt an immediate-deposit > mandate, requiring, as a condition of funding, employment and evaluation, > that all researchers deposit their final, peer-reviewed drafts in their > institutional repositories immediately upon acceptance for publication, > regardless of whether they are published in a subscription journal or a Gold > OA journal -- and regardless of whether access to the deposit is made Green > OA immediately or only after a publisher embargo. > > (b) Do not mandate or designate any extra money to pay for Gold OA: let that > come from the subscription cancellation savings -- if and when Green OA > actually releases institutions to cancel subscriptions. > > (c) To tide over research access needs during any embargo, make sure to > implement the institutional repository's automated copy-request Button so > that any user can request -- and any author can provide -- a single copy for > research purposes with just one click each. > > Now please read how fully the Dutch government fell for the publishing > lobby's nocturnal fantasy. (Tomorrow you will see the same from the UK.) > > Here is a quick google translation of excerpts from Sander Dekker, Secretary > of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands on "Commitment to further > developments in open access scientific publication" > Sander Dekker, Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands: > > "A clear choice in favour of Open Access publications; the transition process > provides the necessary speed and shortens the transition period, thus > avoiding unnecessary additional costs... . > > "The Green road is the form in which the author publishes an article in a > journal. In addition, the author deposits a version of the article in Open > Access electronic archive ( repository ). There are both discipline-based and > university-based repositories. The system of paid subscriptions to journals > continues. Publishers often negotiate embargo periods that can range from > several months to several years before an article can be made OA through a > repository. During the embargo period, only the paid version of the journal > accessible. This constitutes a source of revenue for publishers. Moreover, > there are publisher restrictions on the version of an article in the > repository. Sometimes this may only be the version that has not yet been peer > reviewd... > > "Netherlands is in a special position because it has a number of major > scientific publishers within its borders. That makes dialogue between science > and the Dutch publishing possible... > > "In the UK, a national committee chaired by Dame Janet Finch laid the > foundation for the Open Access policy of the United Kingdom. The report of > the Commission Finch serves as a solid standard . It contains a thorough > analysis of developments and progress. The Committee notes that due to the > major changes it is imperative that all players act together and she advises > to achieve by focusing on Open Access journals. Transition Following this > advice, the British government earmarked 10 million pounds for Open Access. > The initial signs indicate that this has not led to an accelerated transition > , but rather a continuation of the transition... > > "The transition to the Golden Road: My preference is for Open Access > publishing in journals that make their articles accessible free, the Golden > road. My aim is to achieve OA within ten years: a full transition to Open > Access Golden Road by 2024. to achieve this, at least 60 percent of the > scientific publications Open Access should be available in about five years > through the Gold OA journals... > > "The real change can only be achieved if we work together at the > international level with National cooperation and coordination equally > important... > > "Open Access in the coming years: Dutch universities, KNAW and NWO should > give priority to Open Access Golden road... > > "While the publishers have not yet made the transition to Open Access Golden > road I prefer hybrid Open Access, where the institution pays for publication > in a traditional journal... > > "For disciplines where the potential for Gold Open Access journals is still > limited, it is possible to provide OA via the Green road... > > "1. Consultation with likeminded countries: I will get in touch with a number > of like-minded countries to promote and acceleration Open Access. I refer > primarily to the United Kingdom and Germany . This is because there are a > large number of important commercial and academic publishers in the > Netherlands and in these two countries i. In addition, Denmark, Finland, > Belgium and France are leading like-minded countries... > > "2. Create conditions under which open access possible: An important momentum > in the transition to Open Access publications when the scientific > organizations and major scientific publishers agree on subscriptions to > scientific journals . This 'big deals' always apply for some years…." > > "3. reports: If the parties concerned are not sufficiently committed , or > developments in insufficient progress , the minister and I imagine that the > obligation to publish Gold OA to be included in the Law on Higher Education > in 2016 Open Access and Research Act (WHW )…." > > Sander Dekker, Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands > _______________________________________________ > GOAL mailing list > GOAL@eprints.org > http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal -- Dr. Heather Morrison Assistant Professor École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies University of Ottawa http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html heather.morri...@uottawa.ca _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
