Re: Summary paper from the Publishing Research Consortium

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007, Sally Morris wrote:

> To help the scholarly community better understand and evaluate 
> how open archiving might impact journal subscriptions, the 
> Publishing Research Consortium has released the summary paper 
> 'Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Co-existence or 
> Competition?'.
>
> This paper is a condensed version of the earlier analysis 
> released in November 2006.  It looks at librarian purchasing 
> preferences, and concludes that mandating self-archiving within 
> six months or less of publication will undermine the 
> subscription-based peer review journal.  The summary paper, 
> together with the original report, is freely available at 
> http://www.publishingresearch.org.uk/.

For those who may have forgotten, here also is the critique of 
(the long version of) that study:

     Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Critique of PRC Study
     http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/162-guid.html
     http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5795.html

Let me also add that if and when Green OA self-archiving ever 
does turn out to cause unsustainable cancellation of 
subscriptions, the obvious and natural consequence will be a 
redirection of those windfall institutional subscription savings 
toward paying instead for Gold OA publication charges.

So the only "risk" of Green OA is a possible, eventual conversion 
to Gold OA publishing. The sure outcome, in the meanwhile, is the 
long overdue benefits of 100% OA for research, researchers, their 
institutions, their funders, R&D industries, and the tax-paying 
public.

Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html