Select Committee attacks gold route to open access | SCONUL

"The House of Commons Select Committee which looks at the work of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published its report on open access which can be found here.   It argues that 'the major mechanism through which the UK has achieved its world leading status (Green open access) has been given inadequate consideration on the formation of Government and RCUK policies' and recommends that Government take an active role working with Jisc and OAIG to promote standardisation and compliance across subject and institutional repositories.   It states that 'the major mechanism of transition must be Green open access, specifically through strong, immediate self-archiving mandates set by funders and institutions'.    It is heavily critical of the cost involved in a transition to gold open access and says 'it is unacceptable that the Government has issued, without public consultation, an open access policy that will require considerable subsidy from research budgets in order to maintain journal subscriptions and cover APCs.'  It calls on Government and RCUK to mitigate against the impact on university budgets and states that 'The Government must not underestimate the significance of this issue.'   It is supportive of HEFCE’s approach to open access and the post-2014 REF ..."