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

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

A good case in point of a granting agency that provides money to 
support research but not dissemination is the NEH, which once had 
a Publication Subvention Program until the Reagan-era budget ax 
eliminated it in 1995. That was one of the very few general 
sources of subsidies for books in the humanities, and its loss 
was a blow to us university presses and to publication of books 
in the humanities.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State Press

> > But money spent on 'gold' OA is not 'removed' from research,
> >  particularly not if you understand and accept that formally
> >  publishing the results is integral to doing research.
> That's a political argument -- a "should" argument -- rather than
> a statement of fact.  This is a statement of fact: it costs a
> certain amount of money to create information by performing
> research, and it is entirely possible (whether or not desirable)
> to do research and then publish nothing.  If you choose to
> publish the results of your research, additional costs will be
> involved.  There are many granting agencies that have
> traditionally provided money to support the creation of
> information through research, but not the formal publication or
> distribution of it.  There may be good arguments for having those
> granting agencies start funding the second part as well -- but
> there's no way for them to do so without redirecting money from
> their support of actual research.  A good argument, it seems to
> me, would need to demonstrate that the general welfare is better
> served by the free distribution of less information than it is by
> the creation of more information.
>
> By the way, I'm happy to keep rephrasing this basic point as many
> times as it takes.  :-)
>
> Rick Anderson
> Dir. of Resource Acquisition
> University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
> rickand@unr.edu