[Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit

[Stephen Thorpe]

"information already paid for by the public purse should not be paid for again each time it is accessed or used, and ..." 

"This means making publicly-funded scientific information available online, at no extra cost ..."

OK, so wtf is going on here?? Open access means that the public purse DOES pay again, there IS an extra cost (i.e. open access fees). Sure it is not paid for by the public purse each time it is accessed or used. It is paid for in advance regardless of how many people, if any, actually want to access or use the information!

We really need to get straight who really benefits from open access, and how. We also need to look at who is lobbying for open access, and how they benefit.

Other related issues include access to what is already published. Will that require subscriptions to access in addition to open access fees for future publications? Also, will there be extra funding for open access fees, or will it be diverted from existing research budgets.

Stephen


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On Mon, 18/1/16, rch <rch at skynet.be> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Paywall our taxonomic tidbit
 To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu, lynn at afriherp.org, stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz
 Received: Monday, 18 January, 2016, 10:08 AM
 
 Lynn Raw wrote
 "...When the research is paid for by
 'the public' then there should be an obligation
 for this to be made freely available to 'the
 public' whether they are interested or not.
 Admittedly, perhaps this should be limited to the
 residents/taxpayers of the countries concerned (i.e.,
 EU member states for EU-funded research)..."
 
 Actually, I think that the "obligation" is now written
 in tablets of Brussels stone; the European commission says
 "information already paid for by the public purse
 should not be paid for again each time it is accessed or
 used,
 and .. it should benefit European companies and citizens
 to the full. This means making publicly-funded scientific
 information available online, at no extra cost, to
 European researchers, innovative industries and
 citizens, while ensuring long-term preservation." [1]
 
 So now "Open access to scientific peer reviewed
 publications
 has been anchored as an underlying principle in the
 Horizon 2020 Regulation and the Rules of Participation
 and will consequently be implemented through the relevant
 provisions in the grant agreement." [2]
 
 And it looks as though the Horizon 2020 programme, which
 has
 nearly €80 billion available over the years to 2020 [3],
 may even have some funds for taxonomy - see e.g. the
 website
 of CETAF - the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities
 [4]
 
 Richard H
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3023-103X
 
 [1]
 https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf
 [2]
 https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/files/FactSheet_Open_Access.pdf
 [3] https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020
 [4] http://cetaf.org/search/node/Horizon%202020