Usage of Open Access articles

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

A post just appeared on this list, which I mostly agree with, but there is
one item that I wish to comment upon.  The point was made that Open Access
articles are more frequently used than are proprietary articles.  While
this may be true today, this is an advantage that OA articles will not
have much longer, as proprietary publishers will wake up to search-engine
marketing and search-engine optimization in particular soon enough.  
Indeed, one practical effect of the Google Print program is that it is
teaching publishers how the Web works.  There was an announcement on this
subject from Thomson/Gale just today.  Publishers will begin to expose
more content to search-engine spiders and drive up "hits" from keyword
searches.  This will entail wholesale redesign of Web sites.

For people unfamiliar with this marketing phenomenon, please Google
"search engine optimization" or go to (for instance) http://pandia.com.  
Shrewd publishers (a show of hands, please) will see that this kind of
concentrated marketing effort lends itself to larger,
commercially-oriented organizations and will use it to push back the gains
that OA advocates have made over the past two years and to marginalize
further smaller publishers.

There are many reasons to support OA, but increased use of scholarly
materials is not among them.

-- 
Joe Esposito