Dear Joe and jcg, It is not correct to say the the free public available of an uncopyedited version after 6 months will cause major cancellations. I hope someone from Highwire will correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that for the many journals they distribute, free availability of the full published version after 6 months has not lead to significant subscription losses for the journals concerned. I think that this can be demonstrated even without quantitative data: almost all the publishers have continued this availability, and they surely would not have done so if it were damaging to their subscription list. The length of this period for these journals is not compelled, but is their free choice. This is not unreasonable for first rate journals, such as those. Those who want them most want them immediately. It might be significant for journals which nobody really reads much anyway: I would say that in most scientific subjects, if researchers do not care whether they see a journal's articles within the first few months, the journal is essentiallymoribund, and will be a prime target for cancellation in any case, regardless of OA. There should be no regret it if OA causes a faster cancellation of the titles that are both expensive and virtually useless-- even their publishers may be better off without them. But at least in biomedicine, it has been proven that 6 months offers sufficient protection for a good journal--what remains to be proven is whether in biomedicine even shorter periods are not sufficient. In physics, it has been proven that no embargo period at all is necessary. I think OA is possible for all publishers of good journals, commercial or non-commercial, and I would not discourage any. Recent years have seen the massive flight of capital into , not out of, the commercial publishing industry, as the purchases of Kluwer and Springer have demonstrated, These purchases were made with the full awareness of the forthcoming possibility of OA. I even suggest that it is possible that "Gold" OA Journals may prove particularly suited to the commercial publishers, because they have the capital to keep them going over the transition, whereas not all societies do. There are a wide range of possibilities with the introduction of OA, and we shall soon see which of them will be realised. But there are some that are not probable, and the immediate massive cancellation of good journals is among them--I would regard it as about equally likely as the immediate adoption of OA Journals by all publishers. There may be fundamental changes, and they may happen during the next 5 years or so, but this gives publishers of all types sufficient time to adapt the way they do business. I cannot imagine a publisher so unaware that it has not begun planning some time ago. Dr. David Goodman Associate Professor Palmer School of Library and Information Science Long Island University dgoodman@liu.edu