From: Ari Belenkiy <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 12:40:22 -0700 Let me humbly remark that Soviet model remunerated the authors while the gold OA initiated by Vitek Tracz robs them of money! Moreover, the latter model tilts balance toward mediocre papers whose authors are able to pay the "entrance" fees. But the most tricky word in all this discussion about OA is "customers". Who are they - those who need to read a host of newly published medical articles immediately and free of charge? I suspect they are rich elderly folks who are seeking immediate cure for their life threatening diseases. They are the major beneficiaries of OA. It is for their health and sake OA came to destroy the traditional publishing routine. They need their doctors be able to access any innovation in the medical field. They are not sure their doctors would be eager to pay to read the article. So they need them free. And immediately. The authors so far are the "martyrs" of OA. Before the OA era, the authors did not have a "privilege" of paying fees - the libraries of their institutions paid the price of being acquainted with the latest research via subscriptions. Now, with gold OA model and a host of authors who subscribed to it, the libraries seem to have to pay less than earlier. But is it so? The money to the libraries always came and come from the student fees. Do we see the tuition fees went down by at least one buck after introduction of OA? Asking all the questions in the last several years, I got a standard answer that the "gold OA" is "profanation" of a "true" OA, which is... "green OA". Let me again remark that the "green OA" is non-sense and no publisher will ever embrace it wholeheartedly. Those of them who halfheartedly did this (to avoid an outcry from the liberal vociferous university folks) smartly introduced a so-called "embargo period", which effectively kills the very idea of OA. Except for the negative sides of OA already mentioned here by others, I cannot see any positive result from OA. True, I am not sure that Vitek Trasz must be blamed for this outcome. Ari Belenkiy, PhD Vancouver BC