From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 7 May 2015 12:39:20 +0000 Hi Ann, As I understand this, what is being proposed is that the UK government, or some group acting on its behalf, would negotiate with publishers to license open access for anyone with a UK-based IP address. Thus, instead of paying gold OA changes to open up individual articles, a national license for open access would provide open access to entire contents of journals that were included. This would eliminate the need for both separate subscriptions for universities and those individualized APCs, substituting a direct national subvention of publisher costs. I see this as one of a variety of proposals to leverage the money currently spent on subscriptions to support the production of knowledge and its widespread dissemination. All of them are very ambitious, but usually rather vague about how we get from where we are now to the idealized ecosystem. In this proposal, "individual negotiations" about price and access terms with the publishers seems to me to paint over a huge obstacle. The alternative suggested, "one big negotiation" simply boggles the mind. Kevin L. Smith Director, Copyright & Scholarly Communication Duke University Libraries -----Original Message----- From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]> Date: Sun, 3 May 2015 10:02:01 -0400 Hello, All: About a month ago, a URL was circulated for an HEPI report called, "Open Access: Is a National License the answer?" I've read it over a couple of times and don't understand it very well. Is that because it's aimed at a UK situation that doesn't apply elsewhere? How would this work? If anyone on this list has any further insights, they would be appreciated. http://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/openaccess_v3_web.pdf Thank you, Ann