[Apologies for cross-posting]

For full text of this posting, see: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/421-guid.html
SUMMARY: Journal articles are purchased by institutions, or consortia
of institutions, in bulk (jointly aggregated in journals, in publisher
"big-deal" fleets of journals, or even in multi-publisher fleets of
fleets of journals), whereas individual articles are published by
authors individually, in their journal of choice (and only if and when
they successfully pass that journal's peer review). Mark Rowse, former
CEO of INGENTA, a journal subscription aggregator, has suggested that
institutions and institutional consortia could "flip" collectively,
from paying annual subscription licenses that buy-in journals in bulk,
to paying annually instead for the publishing (Gold OA) of their own
institution's outgoing articles, likewise in bulk, to the same fleet
of journals. SCOAP3 is an experimental implementation of a pre-emptive
Rowsean flip, but it is local, and in a unique field (particle
physics) that already provides 100% Green OA by self-archiving.
SCOAP3's is hence simply a consortial subsidy ("sponsorship") to
replace former subscriptions. This is unlikely to be globally scalable
across disciplines, institutions, authors, articles and (competing)
journals, not only because the asking price today is too high, but
because successfully passing peer review is an individual author -
article - journal - referee matter rather than something to be
annually "bulk-subscribed" to, consortially, in advance. By way of an
alternative, institutional Green OA self-archiving and mandates,
unlike a Rowsean flip, can not only scale universally to provide 100%
(Green) OA, but they can also prepare the ground for an eventual non-
pre-emptive, non-Rowsean "flip" to Gold OA, by first offloading access-
provision, archiving and their costs onto the network of Green OA
Institutional Repositories, thereby helping to downsize publishing and
its costs to just the costs of peer review. Those costs can then be
covered on an individual paper (non-bulk, non-consortial, non-
aggregated, non-subscription, non-annual, non-pre-emptive) basis out
of individual institutional subscription cancellation savings -- if
and when Green OA should ever make subscriptions globally
unsustainable. (Till then, no need for any pre-emptive conversion at
all.)
For full text of this posting, see: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/421-guid.html
Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum