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*Joseph Esposito:*<http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/09/26/when-it-comes-to-green-oa-nice-guys-finish-last/>

*"Stevan Harnad engaged Rick’s
comment<http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1051-Is-the-Library-Community-Friend-or-Foe-of-OA.html>
and
asserted that such a [journal cancellation] policy was a very bad thing
since it would set back the advance of Green OA. This is an interesting
remark, as it reveals Professor Harnad’s conviction that librarians, indeed
the whole world, should view the achievement of his idiosyncratic goal as
their highest priority. As far as I know, it is not the mission of Rick’s
institution or any other to put Green OA at the top of a list of
desiderata. Most institutions put service to their own institutions first,
as one would expect. Cancelling Green OA journals will indeed set back the
advance of Green OA, but that’s beside the point."*

*David Crotty*<http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/09/26/when-it-comes-to-green-oa-nice-guys-finish-last/#comment-112263>
(with
11 scholarly thumbs up from his co-cuisiniers): *
"I find Dr. Harnad’s response here somewhat appalling. Progress in
implementing Open Access will come from open discussion, analysis and
experimentation, not from censorship, obfuscation and withholding
information. When voices as disparate as Kent Anderson and Cameron Neylon
are in agreement about OA reaching a new era of practical implementation,
it should be a sign that Harnad is out of step here. It’s always valuable
to have someone willing to point out the state of the Emperor’s clothing."*

Compliments to the chefs. Some suggested recipe upgrades:

1. No suggestion made that institutions cannot or should not cancel
journals if their articles are all or almost all Green.

(No such journal in sight yet, however, since Green OA is still hovering
around 20-30%, apart from some parts of Physics -- but there it's already
been at or near 100% for over 20 years, and no cancellations in
sight<http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/261006/>.
For the rest, when Green OA -- which grows anarchically, article by
article, not systematically, journal by
journal<http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/265753/> --
prevails universally, because Green OA mandates prevail, all or most
journal articles will be Green universally, so Green OA will not be a
factor in deciding whether to cancel this journal rather than that one.)

2. The issue with Rick was not about the notion of canceling journals
because their articles are all or almost all Green, but about cancelling
journals (60%) because they do *not* have a policy of embargoing Green OA!

3. And such a perverse cancellation policy would not be a setback for Green
OA but for OA itself. (But not a *big* setback, thanks to the
Liège<http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/handle/2268/102031>
-FNRS <http://roarmap.eprints.org/850/> model immediate-deposit mandate
recommended by BOAI-10<http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai-10-recommendations>
, HEFCE<http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/987-The-UKs-New-HEFCEREF-OA-Mandate-Proposal.html>
, BIS<http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1040-UK-BIS-Committee-2013-Report-on-Open-Access.html>
 and HOAP<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap/Implementing_a_policy#Internal_use_of_deposited_versions>,
which is immune to publisher embargoes.)

(I notice in the SSP scullery discussion above that my suggestion that Rick
should post his OA-unfriendly cancellation strategy to library lists rather
than to OA lists amounts to a call for censorship over open discussion. I
add only that I am not the moderator of any list, hence have no say over
their content. It was an open expression, on an open list, of my opinion
(together with the reasons for it) that such discussion belongs on another
open list.)

*Stevan Harnad*