By all means commit available institutional and research funds to pay Gold OA publishing fees, and study the outcome -- but don't forget to mandate Green OA first!

Not only will that generate far more OA at no extra cost, but the costs of Gold OA will differ radically before and after universal Green OA has been reached.

'"Open Access: The Historic Irony"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/727-guid.html

"Never Pay Pre-Emptively For Gold OA Before First Mandating Green OA"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/714-guid.html

"On Not Putting The Gold OA-Payment Cart Before The Green OA-Provision Horse"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/630-guid.html

"SCOAP3 and the pre-emptive "flip" model for Gold OA conversion"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/421-guid.html

"Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity [COPE]: Mistaking intent for action?"
http://poynder.blogspot.com/2009/09/compact-for-open-access-publishing.html

"Putting Principled Support Into Practice: What Provosts Need to Mandate"
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/117-guid.html

Harnad, S. (2007) The Green Road to Open Access: A Leveraged Transition. In: Anna Gacs (Ed.).The Culture of Periodicals from the Perspective of the Electronic Age. L’Harmattan. 99-106.  http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/13309/

Harnad, S. (2009) The PostGutenberg Open Access Journal. In: Cope, B. & Phillips, A (Eds.) The Future of the Academic Journal. Chandos. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/15617/

Harnad, S., Brody, T., Vallieres, F., Carr, L., Hitchcock, S., Gingras, Y, Oppenheim, C., Stamerjohanns, H., & Hilf, E. (2004) The green and the gold roads to Open Access. Nature Web Focus. http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/21.html

On 2010-05-04, at 11:30 AM, Jennifer McLennan wrote:

> Open-access funds: Design and implementation on campus
> A SPARC Webcast
> Wednesday, May 5, 2010
> 1:00 – 2:00PM EST
> Registration is free, but required. RSVP by May 4 at http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/event_registration.shtml.
>
> An open-access fund is a pool of money set aside by an institution to support publication models that enable free, immediate, online distribution of, and access to, scholarly research.  In late 2009, open-access funds gained prominence when a number of high-profile institutions signed the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE).  COPE encouraged universities and research funding agencies to develop “durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals.”
>
> SPARC has recently taken a number of visible steps to support further exploration of the open-access fund model.  SPARC’s activities include compiling data from every North American university with a fund and rendering it accessible for further analysis; creating a practical guide for institutions evaluating the implementation of an open-access fund; and publishing an online clearinghouse that includes frequently asked questions, case studies, links to further reading, and a variety of other tools to facilitate greater understanding and evaluation of open-access funds.  Visit http://www.arl.org/sparc/openaccess/funds/index.shtml for access to these resources.
>
> On May 5, 2010, SPARC consultant and author of these new resources, Greg Tananbaum, will join us to explore why institutions are launching open-access funds, what practical and policy issues go into such a decision, how faculty and administration have reacted to these funds, what the results to date have been, and what SPARC is doing to evaluate and track the impact of these funds. Members of the advisory group that helped to develop the guide and SPARC resource, and whose experience in operating funds on their campuses has been an essential resource for others in the space, will also be available to field questions.
>
> Please join us.
>
> Open-access funds: Design and implementation on campus
> A SPARC Webcast
> Wednesday, May 5, 2010
> 1:00 – 2:00PM EST
> Registration is free, but required. RSVP by May 4 at http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/event_registration.shtml.
>
>
> -------------------------------------
> Jennifer McLennan
> Director of Programs & Operations
> SPARC
> jennifer -- arl.org
> (202) 296-2296 x121
> Fax: (202) 872-0884
> *******************************
> SPARC 2010 Digital Repositories Meeting
> November 8 & 9 - Baltimore, MD
> http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/09-0223.shtml
> *******************************
> Open Access Week 2010
> October 18 - 24. Everywhere.
> http://www.openaccessweek.org
> *******************************
> http://www.arl.org/sparc
>
> Visit the Web archive at <https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-IR/>
>