RE: Forthcoming OA Developments in France

["Lisa Dittrich" <lrdittrich@aamc.org>]

I agree, and I think this highlights an issue raised in T. Scott 
Pluchak's very thoughtful response to PLOS's current financial 
situation.

I personally think the push to OA has come from a few zealots (Varmus 
and whatever Nobel Laureates he could strong arm into signing his 
various decrees) and librarians upset about "the serials crisis"--i.e., 
the higher prices they had to start paying once site licences came along 
and also, of course, the high prices some journals charge for regular 
subs (the usual suspects always trotted out to show how outrageously 
greedy all of us in scholarly publishing are).  Most scientists, though, 
with the possible exception of physicists, have been quite content with 
the "open access" they already have--namely, the ability to easily get 
content through their libraries, paid for by their library's budget. I 
can't tell you how many of the authors I work with who don't even know 
what the term "open access" means!  Granted, my work is with folks who 
are split between medicine and medical education (so it's 
social-sciencey) but still.  It's not the coin of the realm it is on 
this list. And they are VERY busy people.     So ask them to take one 
more step after publication--to deposit their research on an NIH 
database, or even an IR, and most will say "I'll get to 
that...sometime."

As with most other causes, it's those whose livelihoods --the Varmuses 
and Harnads of the world--and those whose pocketbooks--the librarians 
and publishers--who are most invested in this issue who get their 
knickers in a twist over it, as one of my editors used to say.  That, 
and intellectuals w/too much time on their hands.  The researchers are 
busy researching and publishing.  Oh, sure, ask them if research should 
be free, and they'll say yes.  Ask most people if "X" should be free, 
and what do you think they'll say?

One other thing:  the assumption that all researchers want to share 
their data is nuts.  Remember the fight over who first discovered the 
AIDS virus?  It got pretty ugly.  And we've published research in our 
journal about geneticists holding their findings pretty close to the 
vest for fear of being scooped.  It's not all a love fest in science 
land, people.

Lisa