From: David Prosser <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:26:44 +0000

What would RWA allow to happen?

1. Publishers could refuse to allow any of the NIH-funded research
they publish to appear for free in PMC.  This would lower the
proportion of NIH-funded research in PMC.

2. If they do continue to participate then publishers would be free to
increase the embargo period - so reducing the timeliness of the
material on PMC.  Alicia has told us that the blanket 12-month embargo
is a concern to some publishers and so longer embargoes would be a
real possibility.

3. Publishers could use the lack of a mandate to negotiate fee-based
deposit into PMC.  Again, Alicia outlines that as a possibly
acceptable arrangement to some publishers.  This would be in addition
to the current publication charges many subscription journals charge
and, of course, the costs of the subscriptions themselves.

So, if RWA were to be passed it could lower the proportion of
NIH-funded material in PMC, reduce the timeliness of that material and
increase the costs to NIH.  We can quibble about definitions (and I've
been doing too much of that recently), but to me that sounds
'anti-PMC'.

David


On 19 Jan 2012, at 23:34, LIBLICENSE wrote:

> From: T Scott Plutchak <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:01:57 +0000
>
> PubMed Central existed long before the NIH public access policy and
> would continue to exist even if the mandatory policy were revoked.
> Many publishers participated in PMC before the NIH policy was adopted
> and many more will continue to participate.  Authors published in
> Elsevier journals would still be free to deposit their final
> manuscripts.
>
> Personally, I think RWA is a terrible bill and I don't expect it to go
> anywhere, but it is not an attack on PMC itself -- it is an attack on
> the requirement that articles must be deposited there.  PubMed Central
> and the NIH mandatory policy are not the same thing.
>
> Scott
>
>
> T. Scott Plutchak
>
> Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
> University of Alabama at Birmingham
> [log in to unmask]