Universal University Open Access Mandates Moot The Problem of Uncontrolled Journal Price Inflation Caused By Inelastic Demand

[Stevan Harnad <amsciforum@gmail.com>]

** Apologies for Cross-Posting **

Stuart Shieber, architect of Harvard's OA Mandate, asks: "Do we 
continue the status quo, which involves only supporting a 
business model known to be subject to uncontrolled inflationary 
spirals, or do we experiment with new mechanisms that have the 
potential to be economically sound and far more open to boot?"

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2009/08/31/more-on-academic-freedom-and-oa-funds/comment-page-1/#comment-152

The answer is simple: The only reason the uncontrolled inflation 
of journal subscription costs is a problem at all (and also the 
reason the upward spiral continues uncontrolled) is the planet's 
universities' inelastic demand and need for access to the journal 
articles.

Hence the solution is for universities -- the universal providers 
of all those journal articles -- to provide Open Access (free 
online access) to them by mandating that their peer-reviewed 
final drafts be deposited in their institutional repositories 
immediately upon acceptance for publication.

Universal OA self-archiving moots the problem of uncontrolled 
subscription-cost inflation by putting an end to the inelasticity 
of the demand: If your university cannot afford the subscription 
price for journal X, your users will still have access to the OA 
version.

There is no need for universities to try to reform journal 
economics directly now. What is urgently needed, universally 
reachable, and already long overdue is universal OA 
self-archiving mandates from universities. Focusing instead on 
reforming journal business models is simply distracting from and 
hence delaying the fulfillment of this pressing need.

Harvard should focus all its energy and prestige on 
universalizing OA self-archiving mandates rather than dissipating 
it superfluously on journal economics and OA funds.

Once OA self-archiving is universal, journal economics will take 
care of itself.

[SNIP]

Stevan Harnad