From: Richard Poynder <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:16:39 +0100

When last July Research Councils UK (RCUK) announced its new Open
Access (OA) policy it sparked considerable controversy, not least
because the policy required researchers to “prefer” Gold OA (OA
publishing) over Green OA (self-archiving). The controversy was such
that earlier this year the House of Lords Science & Technology
Committee launched an inquiry into the implementation of the policy
and the subsequent report was highly critical of RCUK.

As a result of the criticism, RCUK published two clarifications.
Amongst other things, this has seen Green OA reinstated as a viable
alternative to Gold. At the same time, however, RCUK extended the
permissible maximum embargo before papers can be self-archived from 12
to 24 months. OA advocates — who maintain that a six-month embargo is
entirely adequate — responded by arguing that this would simply
encourage publishers who did not have an embargo to introduce one, and
those that did have one to lengthen it. As a result, they added, many
research papers would be kept behind publishers’ paywalls
unnecessarily.

It has begun to appear that these warnings may have been right.
Evidence that publishers have indeed begun to respond to RCUK’s policy
in this way was presented during a second inquiry into OA — this time
by the House of Commons Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) Committee.
The Committee cited the case of a UK publisher who recently introduced
a 24-month embargo where previously it did not have one. The publisher
was not named, but it turns out to be a UK-based company called
Emerald.

Why did Emerald decide that an embargo is now necessary where
previously it was not? Why do the details of the embargo on Emerald’s
web site differ from the details sent to the publisher’s journal
editors? And what does Emerald’s decision to introduce a two-year
embargo presage for the development of Open Access? To my surprise,
obtaining answers to the first two questions proved more difficult
than I had anticipated.

More here: http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/open-access-emeralds-green-starts-to.html

Richard Poynder