UK article on Open Access

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

An article just appeared in Information World, whose headline reads:  
"Open access publishing on the decline?  Government response to Committee
findings points to decline of open access movement as a significant reason
for staying with the status quo"  The URL is:
http://www.iwr.co.uk/IWR/1159363, though I had some trouble loading the
page at first.

I think the article has it right:  For the short-term, OA has peaked.  
The "great tsunamai" that people are talking about hasn't happened--and
won't, at least not yet.  But longer term the pieces are being put in
place that will make OA more and more common.  The article does not
address the long term.  I am thinking in particular of the "leakage" from
proprietary journals through email attachments, author self-archiving, and
institutional archives.  Something like DSpace, which makes it very easy
for an author to do exactly what Stevan Harnad wants him or her to do, is
probably going to play a very large role in raising the flow from leakage
to a steady stream, and visitors to the Grand Canyon know what a steady
stream can do when given enough time.

-- 
Joe Esposito