Revolution stalled? Open Access, Scholarship and the State | Wonkhe | Analysis

"... Willetts noticed the importance Mokyr attached to ideas as the steam of British industrialisation, and wondered, following representations from interested scientific bodies and research agencies, whether emergent Open Access publishing protocols might replicate the institutional impact of the Dissenting Academies and help generate similar steam for innovation in the UK two centuries later.

The fact that, as then presented, Open Access might also save British universities significant cash sums was another powerful argument in its favour. Willetts was conscious of the battles of a decade ago, when the Department of Education took on the Department of Trade and Industry over the rising costs and sustained high profitability of scientific journals, and lost. He assembled a number of distinguished persons under the Chairmanship of Dame Janet Finch to consider the issues arising, and report."