[Open-access] An anti-RWA bill

Wed Feb 1 15:01:43 UTC 2012

Nick Barnes wrote:

> I am certainly not convinced that a broader US mandate
> will lead to universal publication fees, and you have done
> little to convince me of it.

Ah, excellent point! I took this for granted, because I
hadn't thought there were any alternatives. It is indeed
crucial that we are on one page on this, IMHO.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

1. We're discussing a push for a universal OA mandate -
world-wide, not only US/NIH, without embargo?

2. If I understand 1. correctly, then search tools
would/could point to the OA version of every article first -
it's a safe link for every user?

3. If every article is available from a 'free' source, why
should a library pay subscription fees?
3a. If libraries or funders pay 'subscription' for
author-fees, what would prevent another 'serials crisis'?
3b. Am I missing something?

> Has the NIH mandate caused a huge increase in author-pays
> OA?

Probably, but difficult to judge as PLoS was founded just a
few years earlier - confounding factor. From what I know,
the rate of gold-OA journal-founding is still increasing,
but I haven't seen any hard data on it (I guess Harnad or
Suber would know these figures). Either way, causality is
always hard to establish without manipulation - or was this
the whole idea? :-)

Cheers,

Bjoern

-- 
Björn Brembs
---------------------------------------------
http://brembs.net
Neurobiology
Freie Universität Berlin
Germany