Why ARC hasn't adopted an OA mandate for publicly-funded research

"Margaret Sheil explains why she opposed an OA mandate at the Australian Research Council...In doing so, she reveals two deep misunderstandings. (1) She thinks OA mandates require grantees to publish in OA journals. They don't. They require grantees to deposit their peer-reviewed manuscripts in OA repositories. There are good reasons not to mandate gold OA (through journals), and she lists some. But that's why there are no gold OA mandates anywhere in the world. All OA mandates require green OA (through repositories), and she gives no reasons to oppose them. (2) She thinks OA mandates interfere with the commercialization of patentable discoveries. But this problem has long been solved and the solution is easy. Write the policy so that it only applies to published articles. Grantees who have reasons to wait before publishing (e.g. so they can apply for a patent) can wait. When they voluntarily choose to publish, the policy kicks in. (Yes, OA is not as simple as it sounds; but neither is it as simplistic as Sheil makes it sound.) ..."