From: Frederick Friend <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 14:37:18 +0100

Is it not amazing how, even in these difficult economic times,
governments can find extra cash to smooth over the mistakes in their
own policies! The extra £10 million for 30 UK universities to pay APCs
to publishers is a political gesture to counter the opposition to the
UK Government’s mistaken endorsement of the Finch Report proposals.
Never mind that the money could have been spent far more effectively
in supporting open access repositories! Never mind that the effect
will be inflationary, enabling publishers to raise the level of charge
for APCs! Never mind that the UK Government made exactly the same
mistake 25 years ago in giving university libraries £10 million to pay
for the higher cost of journal subscriptions, generosity which only
poured petrol on the flames of journal inflation and within a couple
of years left libraries no better off! Never mind that the UK
Government has not thought through what to do when the £10 million is
used up and we are left with a publisher-led open access
infrastructure costing the UK taxpayer much more than an improved
repository OA infrastructure would do! In brief this extra money is a
short-term gesture still leaving the UK open access infrastructure
worse off then it was pre-Finch.

For the UK Government announcement see:
http://news.bis.gov.uk/Press-Releases/Government-invests-10-million-to-help-universities-move-to-open-access-67fac.aspx
.

Fred Friend
Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL
http://www.friendofopenaccess.org.uk