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

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

On 3-Sep-09, at 5:51 PM, Ian Russell wrote:

> Except your starting assumption is incorrect.  The 
> "uncontrolled inflationary spiral" is a myth.  Price-per-page 
> and price-per-article are falling and continue to do so.

> What keeps increasing is the number of papers being produced by 
> the academy and it is this that drives the increasing overall 
> costs of scholarly publishing.

Either way, institutions can't afford all the journals their 
users need. So whether the access problem is caused by journal 
price inflation or journal size inflation makes no difference 
whatsoever: Green OA self-archiving is the solution either way.

> If Gold OA constrains the amount of papers produced, and if 
> that's really what the academy wants, then bring it on.

You may not have noticed, but my posting was about Green OA 
(self- archiving) not Gold OA (publishing). I was saying (yet 
again) that pre- emptive Gold OA is premature, unnecessary, a bad 
idea, and a distraction from and hence a deterrent to the 
immediate, universal, reachable, tested and sure solution to the 
global access problem, which is Green OA self-archiving mandates.

Stevan Harnad

> Ian Russell
> ALPSP
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad
> Sent: 02 September 2009 23:11
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Universal University Open Access Mandates Moot The Problem of
> Uncontrolled Journal Price Inflation Caused By Inelastic Demand
>
> ** 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-an
> d-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