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Re: Looking an open access gift horse...

At 03:53 PM 1/19/2004 -0500, Ann Okerson wrote:


With permission, I've digested below comments from a couple of university
administrative folks who have seen the discussion about the potential
effects of Open Access on library/university budgets, but aren't mmembers
of this list.

[...]


3.  There's a question of chicken/egg.  If I want to switch to Open Access
(author-pays) from the current model (reader-pays), may I expect costs for
current subscriptions to go down as fast as or faster than the costs for
Open Access go up?  If not, where will I find the delta?  If I build a
bridge strategy to cover a period of double-cost, how confident can I be
that I'll get back to where I am now?
In an article about two years ago I called this the "double payment" problem. I conceded that it's a real problem, but argued that it only
affects the transition to open access (OA), not the long-term
sustainability of OA. I also sketched some ways to solve or avoid the
problem.

Dissemination fees, access fees, and the double payment problem, _FOS Newsletter_, January 1, 2002.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/01-01-02.htm

----------
Peter Suber
Research Professor of Philosophy, Earlham College
Open Access Project Director, Public Knowledge
Author, SPARC Open Access Newsletter
Editor, Open Access News blog
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/
peter.suber@earlham.edu