Green OA Embargoes: Just a Publisher Tactic for Delaying the Optimal and Inevitable - Open Access Archivangelism

"Bravo to Danny Kingsley for her invaluable antipodean OA advocacy! I think Danny is spot-on in all the points she makes, so these are just a few supplementary remarks ... 1. The publishing industry is using Green OA embargoes and lobbying to try to hold OA hostage to its current inflated revenue streams as long as possible-- by forcing the research community to pay for over-priced, double-paid (and double-dipped, if hybrid) Fools Gold if it wants to have OA at all ... 2. There is a powerful tactical triad -- tried, tested and proven effective -- to moot publisher delay tactics (embargoes and lobbying) -- and that triad is for both funders and insitutions to  (i) mandate immediate deposit in institutional repositories, whether or not the deposit is made immediately OA,  (ii) implement the institutional repository's facilitated eprint request Button to tide over research access needs during any embargo, and  (iii) designate repository deposit as the sole mechanism for submitting publictions for institutional performance review (or national research assessment).  3. The research community should resolutely resist publishers' attempt to imply that 'Green OA' means 'Delayed (embargoed) OA.' It does not. OA means immediate, unembargoed access ... 4. OA Metrics will follow, not precede OA. The reason we do not have 100% OA yet is not because of bias against Gold OA journals. It is because of researcher passivity, publisher activism (embargoes and lobbying) and lack of clear information and understanding about OA and how to make it happen ..."