Beating a dead Trojan horse (RE: Open Choice is a Trojan Horse for Open Access Mandates)

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

> Institutions are paying for subscriptions today. That is no 
> delusion.

True enough.

> There is little OA today. That is no delusion.

OK.

> Green self-archiving mandates will generate 100% OA. That is no 
> delusion.

Well... yes.  Universal mandates will generate 100% OA. 
Assuming universal compliance, that is.

> What happens to subscriptions after that is speculation, not 
> delusion.

Sorry to keep repeating this, but for some reason it keeps 
becoming necessary to repeat it: if the government requires that 
all articles be made immediately available to the public at no 
charge, then the idea that the public will spontaneously choose 
(against all reason) to pay for access to those articles is 
ridiculous.  For libraries to invest taxpayers' money in ongoing 
subscriptions to journals that consist of such articles would be 
wanton irresponsibility.  To dismiss this line of basic economic 
reasoning as "speculation" is absurd.

Maybe a 100% Green world would be a wonderful place.  But make no
mistake: it would be a world largely bereft of paid subscriptions.

---
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
rickand@unr.edu