From: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2018 13:48:41 +0000

Liblicense members might like to know of a new preprint, posted today on
Zenodo, which updates the opinion paper about our failure to deliver open
access that I published in *Learned Publishing* a year ago (Green, 2017)
<https://goo.gl/oojiU9>. In this new paper, I review how the open access
landscape has evolved over the past twelve months and propose a novel
approach that might help solve both the challenge of delivering open access
and solve the serial crisis. (I just had time to include some thoughts
about Plan S, too.)

Access the preprint here https://zenodo.org/record/1410000#.W5EGSm996Ul

*Key points:*

   - We’re still failing to deliver open access (OA): around a fifth of new
   articles will be born free in 2018, roughly the same as in 2017.
   - Librarians, funders and negotiators are getting tougher with
   publishers but offsetting, ‘Publish and Read’, deals based on APCs won’t
   deliver OA for all or solve the serials crisis.
   - The authors of Budapest, Bethesda and Berlin OA declarations foresaw
   three changes with the coming of the internet. Flipping to a barrier to
   publish (APCs) from a barrier to read (subscriptions) wasn’t one of them.
   - By itself, OA won’t reduce costs to solve the serials crisis: a
   digital transformation of scholarly communications based on internet-era
   principles is needed.
   - Following the internet-era principle of ‘fail-fast’, what if papers
   are first posted as preprints and only if they succeed in gaining attention
   will editors invite submission to their journal.
   - In clinging onto traditional journals to advance the careers of the
   few (authors), OA is delayed for the many (readers): rebuilding the
   reputation economy to accept preprints could be the catalyst to deliver OA,
   solve the serials crisis and drive out predatory journals

And I look forward to feedback and comments.



Toby Green