STM criticises EC stance on 'green' Open Access | The Bookseller

“International scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishers association STM has criticised the European Commission's stance on ‘green’ model open access, following publication of its Commission Recommendation on access to scientific information on Tuesday (17th July). STM said it was pleased that the EC had recognised the importance of the European academic and professional publishing market and its rapid adaptation to the digital age, and understood that the economic and societal potential of better access to scientific information can only be realised if budgets are sufficient. The body also said it welcomed the EC's ‘recognition that the process of selecting, reviewing and publishing articles has a cost.’ However STM said it was disappointed that the Commission had not followed the ‘pragmatic’ lead of the Finch Access Group, which preferred ‘gold’ model OA to the ‘green’ version and opted for a minimum embargo period of not less than 12 months. STM c.e.o. Michael Mabe (pictured) said: ‘Despite data from the PEER project indicating how impractical, time and labour consuming a functioning Green OA universe would be, and numerous submissions about the problems inherent in shorter embargos for many disciplines, the Commission has failed to recognise one size does not fit all, retaining short embargo times of six months for all scientific and technical areas.’ The association said it was looking forward to working wit the Commission as well as the European Parliament and members states to ‘overcome’ its areas of concern with the Recommendation position.”