I have had an editorial published in ecancer journal with the above title.

 

The final two paragraphs read:

 

[W]hat if funders, governments and research institutions ceased providing money for researchers to pay to publish, and instead insisted that they continue publishing in subscription journals—but always self-archived their papers in OA repositories (green OA)? Would this not mean that publishers would have to compete with repositories in access provision? And would they not as a result lower their prices? And if they did, could we not hope to see both the accessibility and affordability problems resolved?

 

Some will respond that in the wake of the pushback against the Finch Report, and the subsequent gold OA policy announced in 2013 by Research Councils UK, the trend now is in any case to introduce green OA mandates. But these mandates still sometimes expect researchers to prefer gold OA, and are usually accompanied by APC funds. Moreover, the requirements of a green OA mandate can in any case be met by paying to publish in a gold OA journal. For so long as funders offer to pay their APCs, therefore, most researchers will likely choose that option, if only because it is much easier.

 

http://ecancer.org/journal/editorial/41-open-access-what-price-affordability.php