Re: A Prophylactic Against the Edentation of the RCUK Policy Proposal

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Sally Morris (ALPSP) wrote:

> Stevan, I don't know what planet you live on (;-) but on Planet Earth
> the problem librarians are trying to address - and the reason for any
> enthusiasm for repositories or any other means of OA - is a shortage of
> funds

Sally, that might be the reason for librarians' (and library funders')
enthusiasm for OA, but it is not the main reason for OA. The reason for OA
is to maximise research impact, hence research progress and productivity.
And the *providers* of OA are not and cannot be librarians (be they ever
so enthusiastic): The only providers of OA are the researchers themselves.
And the only reason that will persuade them (and their funders) to provide
it is that it manximises their research impact.

So whereas both the publishing community and the library community are
marginally implicated in OA (each can either help or hinder OA)
OA-provision itself is 100% in the hands of the OA-providers: the research
community. It can and will be done only by and for them.

It is to the research community that the RCUK mandate is addressed.

Stevan Harnad