From: Alex Holzman <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 22:33:59 -0400

I am sadly ignorant about Mr. Tracz's contributions pro or con and
hero is a subjective term anyway.  But I have to ask--why is being a
smart, strategic business innovator a disqualification for such a
designation?  I would think someone possessing the skills to
contribute to a business model that allowed the stability offered by
profit/surplus while achieving the prime mission of free access for
all end users would indeed have the potential to be a hero.

I'm not saying that is or isn't what happened--I have my doubts about
gold open access.  But then I'm also not convinced that the goal of
free access to all users is necessarily the best way to maximize
dissemination to all interested parties either--makes me much more a
heretic than poor Mr. Tracz, I reckon!

Alex Holzman


On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 9:14 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:10:50 -0400
>
> Agree with Jean-Claude but for a different reason.  Early in the last
> decade, I was part of a librarian focus group invited to London to
> meet with Tracz to talk about about BioMed Central.  There may have
> been 15-20 of us in the room, and a number were passionate open access
> advocates.  When asked if he were pursuing this idea because of a
> powerful conviction/passion for open access, Tracz said clearly that
> he is a publisher and businessman, one who sees in open access a solid
> business opportunity -- which would also help on the access side.
> Many hearts fell and many spirits sagged, for indeed there had been an
> expectation of meeting an open access "hero," but here instead was a
> smart, strategic business innovator.
>
> Ann Okerson/CRL
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 7:04 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > From: "Guédon Jean-Claude" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 10:20:42 +0000
> >
> > I am not so sure that Vitek Tracz is such a "hero" of the open access
> > movement by inventing (or is it Jan Velterop?) APC's..
> >
> > APCs have proved to be very problematic indeed::
> >
> > 1. They create inequalities at the author level that never existed before
> > (including between disciplines, between rich and poor countries, between
> > rich and poor institutions);
> >
> > 2. They have given rise to a horror story called hybrid journals;
> >
> > 3. The have opened the door to an even worse story called deceptive (or
> > predatory, as some say) journals.
> >
> > Hard to be a hero after that.
> >
> > jcg