ScienceGuide - Gold is overrated

The 'green route' is very much like what would normally happen if you publish a book, but next to publishing a book with a publisher, you also put an open access copy in an open access repository. The 'gold route' on the other hand means that you publish a book or an article with an open access publisher only the funding is different. In a commercial environment a library pays subscription costs to the publisher. In the 'golden open access' it's not the library that pays, but the author. This is also the model advised by the Finch Group ... The recent report calls on the Government and Research Council UK (RCUK) to reconsider their preference for gold open access during the five year transition period, and give due regard to the evidence of the vital role that Green open access and repositories have to play as the UK moves towards full open access. The report recommends that: [1] The Government take an active role in promoting standardisation and compliance across subject and institutional repositories [paragraph 25] [2] RCUK reinstate and strengthen the immediate deposit mandate in its original policy and improve the monitoring and enforcement of mandated deposit [paragraph 31] [3] The Government and RCUK revise their policies to place an upper limit of 6 month embargoes on STEM subject research and up to 12 month embargoes for HASS subject research [paragraph 50] [4] The Government mitigate against the impact on universities of paying Article Processing Charges out of their own reserves [paragraph 64] [5] If the preference for Gold is maintained, the Government and RCUK should amend their policies so that APCs are only paid to publishers of pure Gold rather than hybrid journals to eliminate the risk of double-dipping [paragraph 77] ... Commenting on the Report, Adrian Bailey MP, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, said: 'In a fully open access world, the benefits of gold open access may well outweigh those of green open access.  We are not yet in an open access world, however, and the key to the success of open access policy is how we get there. The Government and RCUK have given insufficient consideration to the transitional period and the vital role of the Green route.'  'It became increasingly evident during the course of our inquiry that some elements of the scholarly publishing market are dysfunctional.  The Government’s open access policy risks making the situation worse, causing longer embargoes, restricting access, and inflicting higher costs on UK higher education institutions' ..."