RE: Varmus in the Chronicle

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Could [Rick] let us know what serious open access advocate has suggested
> that either a) all the costs of doing research and publishing the 
> results are going to disappear...

Open access advocates are generally quite explicit about the fact that
costs are being moved around rather than eliminated.  Where they tend to
be unrealistic, I think, is in their assumption that the money needed to
support the creation and publication of content will keep rolling in once
that content is made freely available to the world.  Open-access models
are all built on the assumption that entities other than subscribers
(authors, granting agencies, etc.)will be just as willing to underwrite
journal costs as subscribers were.  While that may in fact be true, I'm
not sure it's a foregone conclusion.  To the degree that it's not a
foregone conclusion, we probably need to take publishers' (especially
nonprofit society publishers') concerns seriously.

> ... or b) there is such a thing as free information?

I guess it depends on your definition of "serious."  (Seth, you're being
awfuly quiet...)

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu