Re: Just who is on the defensive?

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:11:27 +0000 (GMT)

On Mon, 29 Jan 2007, Anthony Watkinson wrote:

> Professor Harnad writes:
> >But I hope you will in turn excuse the research community for
> >being more concerned with *access* .
>
> Those of us who are in touch with the research community on a
> daily basis find that their concerns are with how the OA model
> can work and not primarily about access (as indeed the surveys
> have shown).

The *research community's* concerns are primarily about the OA funding model
and not about access? What survey is this, and what questions were (and were
not) being asked, of whom?

Publishers may be primarily concerned with funding models; librarians might;
even some university administrators (concerned with the library's serials
budget) might. But researchers?

> The evidence is not yet available but surely plans
> for funding an OA universe should at least be worked on, as for
> example Wellcome have done. It is not just a matter of
> speculation but rather for publishers a matter of forethought.

By all means. But it's a different agenda, that exercise in forethought.
OA's immediate agenda is to reach 100% OA (already long overdue) as soon
as possible -- and that can and will be done by mandating self-archiving.

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Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
Received on Tue Jan 30 2007 - 03:11:51 GMT

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