RE: Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Critique of PRC Study

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

> (1) If/when mandated Green OA self-archiving ever makes
> subscriptions unsustainable, journals will switch to Gold OA

First of all, mandated Green OA (according to the Harnadian 
model) makes subscriptions unsustainable by definition -- in 
exactly the same way that handing out unlimited free hamburgers 
on the sidewalk in front of a hamburger stand makes running the 
hamburger stand unsustainable.

Second of all, "journals will switch to Gold OA" is a 
breathtakingly breezy and naive statement, especially coming from 
someone who casually bats away every other reasonable prediction 
as "mere supposition."  The reality, of course, is that some 
journals will go Gold and some will simply go out of business. 
Gold OA itself presents numerous serious problems, most of which 
have already been discussed at length on this list and elsewhere. 
Not least among them is the significant amount of money that a 
widespread Gold OA solution would redirect from needed research.

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