Re: Is OA (Gold) really a desirable goal for scientific journal publishing?

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Just a real short reply this time! I agree with you about CERN 
and don't disagree that some "redirection" will occur. However, 
isn't it also quite possible that, having been constrained for so 
many years from buying books because of high journal prices, 
librarians may actually want to spend more on books again and go 
back to the days when they spent 60-70% of their budgets on books 
and 30-40% on journals--especially if books do not go digital in 
the same OA (green) way that you propose for journal articles?

Let's hear what the librarians have to say about this 
possibility. (Of course, I'll get depressed if they say we'll 
never go back to those "good old days"--and I do realize that 
there will still be lots of electronic materials to purchase, as 
there was not thirty years ago.)

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


> [There is an ongoing discussion on the American Scientist Open 
> Access Forum on the question of whether CERN's push for OA 
> (Gold) publishing in its area will divert funds from research. 
> The initial posting
>
>          http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5957.html
>
> is not by me, Stevan Harnad, but by my brother, John Harnad,
> a physicist. Although I followed the posting with a critique
>
>          http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/5958.html
>
> on some points of detail, I want to stress that I am in basic
> agreement with the gist of John Harnad's point that a hasty
> CERN-led forced conversion to OA (Gold) Publishing in (part or
> all of) physics at this time is likely to cost more, is likely to
> divert funds from research, and should be deferred in favor of
> expanding the practice of OA (Green) Self-Archiving and parallel
> co-existence. -- SH ]