SPARC Europe’s response to the Finch Report « SPARC Europe

“A thumbs up for Open Access, but an expensive way of getting there ... SPARC Europe welcomes the UK Government’s positive interest in Open Access and the Finch report on expanding access to research publications. We are pleased that the issue has gained recognition for its importance and the benefits it can bring. SPARC Europe has long worked to help achieve Open Access in Europe and this development in the UK is significant for its contribution to the worldwide developments around Open Access. This is true of both the so-called ‘Green’ route to Open Access, where research findings are made freely available through Open Access repositories, and the so-called ‘Gold’ route, where articles are made Open Access by the publisher, often (though not in most cases) through a system where the author pays a publication fee. While SPARC Europe broadly welcomes this advance, however, we have some serious concerns about the conclusions and the direction that the report recommends: we also query some of the data (or lack of such) on which these are based. The main points that we wish to flag up are as follows, and are elaborated in the ensuing text: (i) The Finch study is disappointing in not focusing properly on providing Open Access but instead on providing Extended Access. (ii) The UK is already in the forefront in providing Open Access, but the way it has achieved this success is neither recognised by this study, nor used to build further similar progress. (iii) Recommending paying for ‘hybrid’ Gold Open Access without securing full re-use rights in exchange for the payment is not the advance we were hoping for, and will hamper academic and commercial research progress. (iv) The overall recommendations are out of line with those of every other policy from every other nation, region or institution. This is not brave leadership, but a serious mistake...”