[EP-underground] Critique of J-C Guedon's Serials Review article on Open Access

            ** Apologies for Cross-Posting **

I have written a critique of Jean-Claude Guedon's recent Serials Review
article:

    The "Green" and "Gold" Roads to Open Access:=20
    The Case for Mixing and Matching
    Jean-Claude Gu=E9don, Serials Review 30(4) 2004
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913

My critique is entitled:

    Fast-Forward on the Green Road to Open Access:
    The Case Against Mixing Up Green and Gold

Its full text is at:=20

    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcrit.htm

(There is also a full-context version of the critique that quotes J-CG's
article in entirety: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcritcont.=
htm )

Comments are welcome -- preferably posted to:=20
    [email protected]

Here is a summary from the Introduction to my critique:

    Open Access (OA) means: free online access to all peer-reviewed
    journal articles.

    Jean-Claude Guedon (J-CG) argues against the efficacy of author
    self-archiving of peer-reviewed journal articles -- the "Green" road
    to OA -- on the grounds (1) that far too few authors self-archive,
    (2) that self-archiving can only generate incomplete and inconvenient
    access, and (3) that maximizing access and impact is the wrong reason
    for seeking OA (and only favors elite authors). J-CG suggests instead
    that the right reason for seeking OA is so as to reform the journal
    publishing system by converting it to OA ("Gold") publishing (in whic=
h
    the online version of all articles is free to all users). He proposes
    converting to Gold by "mixing and matching" Green and Gold as follows=
:

    First, self-archive dissertations (not published, peer-reviewed
    journal articles).  Second, identify and tag how those dissertations
    have been evaluated and reviewed.  Third, self-archive unrefereed
    preprints (not published, peer-reviewed journal articles). Fourth,
    develop new mechanisms for evaluating and reviewing those unrefereed
    preprints, at multiple levels. The result will be OA Publishing
    (Gold).

    I reply that this is not mixing and matching but merely imagining:
    a rather vague conjecture about how to convert to 100% Gold,
    involving no real Green at all along the way, because Green is the
    self-archiving of published, peer-reviewed articles, not just
    dissertations and preprints.

    I argue that rather than yet another 10 years of speculation
    what is actually needed (and imminent) is for OA self-archiving
    to be mandated by research funders and institutions so that
    the self-archiving of published, peer-reviewed journal articles
    (Green) can be fast-forwarded to 100% OA. The direct purpose of OA
    is to maximize research access and impact, not to reform journal
    publishing; and OA's direct benefits are not just for elite authors
    but for all researchers, for their institutions, for their funders,
    for the tax-payers who fund their funders, and for the progress and
    productivity of research itself.

    There is a complementarity between the Green and Gold strategies for
    reaching 100% OA today, just as there is a complementarity between
    access to the OA and non-OA versions of the same non-OA articles
    today. Whether 100% Green OA will or will not eventually lead to 100%
    Gold, however, is a hypothetical question that is best deferred until
    we have first reached 100% OA, which is a direct, practical, reachabl=
e
    and far more urgent immediate goal -- and the optimal, inevitable
    and natural outcome for research in the PostGutenberg Galaxy.

    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcrit.htm

Stevan Harnad

AMERICAN SCIENTIST OPEN ACCESS FORUM:
A complete Hypermail archive of the ongoing discussion of providing
open access to the peer-reviewed research literature online (1998-2004)
is available at:
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
        To join or leave the Forum or change your subscription address:
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Foru=
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        Post discussion to:
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UNIVERSITIES: If you have adopted or plan to adopt an institutional
policy of providing Open Access to your own research article output,
please describe your policy at:
        http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php

UNIFIED DUAL OPEN-ACCESS-PROVISION POLICY:
    BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
            journal whenever one exists.
            http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
    BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
            toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
            http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml