In October 2008 (ROARMAP http://bit.ly/cj9feP ] ,University of Hong  
Kong proposed to the University Grants Committee (RGC/UGC) an Open  
Access Mandate for all RGC/UGC-funded research. http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/index.htm

It is not yet clear whether this mandate was subsequently adopted, by  
either HKU or RGC/UGC. The proposed mandate itself was an almost- 
optimal one:

It was an Immediate-Deposit mandate, but it seems to have  
misunderstood the fact that a postprint can be deposited in the  
Institutional Repository without having to seek "permission" from the  
publisher. Permissions are only at issue at all for the date when the  
deposit can be made Open Access:
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/494-guid.html

     ii. [HKU RGC/UGC-funded researchers] should send the journal the  
Hong Kong author’s addendum (University of Hong Kong, 2008), which  
adds the right of placing some version (preprint or postprint) of the  
paper in their university’s institutional repository (IR). If  
necessary, seek funds from the RGC to pay open access charges up to an  
agreed limit; perhaps US$3,000...

     iv. deposit all published papers in their IR, unless the journal  
refuses in writing. If the published version is refused, deposit the  
preprint or postprint, as allowed in number ii above...

The proposed mandate's language makes it sound as if HKU wrongly  
believes that it needs to pay the publisher for the right to deposit! I

It is to be hoped that this will be clarified and that the deposit  
mandate will be adopted (both for RGC/HGC-funded research and for  
unfunded HKU research)  before HKU begins to pay any publisher  
anything at all

Stevan Harnad

On Not Putting The Gold OA-Payment Cart Before The Green OA-Provision  
Horse
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/630-guid.html

SUMMARY: Universities need to commit to mandating Green OA self- 
archiving before committing to spend their scarce available funds to  
pay for Gold OA publishing. Most of the university's potential funds  
to pay Gold OA publishing fees are currently committed to paying their  
annual journal subscription fees, which are thereby covering the costs  
of publication already. Pre-emptively committing to pay Gold OA  
publication fees over and above paying subscription fees will only  
provide OA for a small fraction of a university's total research  
article output; Green OA mandates will provide OA for all of it.  
Journal subscriptions cannot be cancelled unless the journals'  
contents are otherwise accessible to a university's users. (In  
addition, the very same scarcity of funds that makes pre-emptive Gold  
OA payment for journal articles today premature and ineffectual also  
makes Gold OA payment for monographsunaffordable, because the  
university funds already committed to journal subscriptions today are  
making even the purchase of a single print copy of incoming monographs  
for the library prohibitive, let alone making Gold OA publication fees  
for outgoing monographs affordable.) Universal Green OA mandates will  
make the final peer-reviewed drafts of all journal articles freely  
accessible to all would-be users online, thereby not only providing  
universal OA, but opening the doors to an eventual transition to  
universal Gold OA if and when universities then go on to cancel  
subscriptions, releasing those committed funds to pay the publishing  
costs of Gold OA.

Springer's Already on the Side of the Angels: What's the Big Deal?
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/703-guid.html

SUMMARY: The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has  
made a deal with Springer that articles by VSNU authors will be made  
OA. But Springer is already on the side of the angels on OA, being  
completely Green on immediate, unembargoed author OA self-archiving.  
Hence all VSNU authors are already free to deposit their refereed  
final drafts of their Springer articles in their institutional  
repositories, without requiring any further permission or payment. So  
what in addition is meant by the VSNU deal with Springer? that the  
Springer PDF rather than the author's final draft can be deposited?  
That Springer does the deposit on VSNU authors' behalf? Or is this a  
deal for prepaid hybrid Gold OA? In the case of Springer articles, it  
seems that what the Netherlands lacked was not the right to make them  
OA, but the mandate (from the VSNU universities and Netherlands'  
research funders like NWO) to make them OA. There are some signs,  
however, that this too might be on the way...

University of California: Throwing Money At Gold OA Without Mandating  
Green OA
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/546-guid.html




On 23-Feb-10, at 4:03 AM, David Palmer wrote:

>  PRESS RELEASE
>
> University of Hong Kong signs Open Choice agreement
> with Springer
>
> Asian open access pilot project to run for one year
>
> Hong Kong / Berlin / London, 22 February 2010
>
> The University of Hong Kong Libraries and Springer have reached an  
> agreement which allows researchers at the affiliated institutions of  
> The University of Hong Kong (HKU) to publish their research in  
> Springer journals using Springer Open ChoiceTM.  Springer's Open  
> Choice program offers full and immediate open access (free to the  
> reader) for articles that are accepted for publication after a  
> process of rigorous peer-review.  Accepted HKU articles will appear  
> as usual in Springer print journals, and will be  published  
> electronically using open access on SpringerLink, PubMed Central,  
> and the HKU institutional repository, The HKU Scholars Hub.   The  
> pilot project will run from March 2010 to March 2011.
>
> Professor Paul Tam, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, and Director  
> of the Knowledge Exchange Office at HKU, said:  “The amount of  
> cutting-edge research done at The University of Hong Kong has  
> increased dramatically.  It is important to also increase access to  
> this research, and thereby secure all the benefits that this  
> research can bring to the public who funded it.  The Springer Open  
> Choice is a good first step in that direction!”
>
> Professor Jan van Aalst,  Springer author at the Faculty of  
> Education of The University of Hong Kong added, “I usually choose a  
> journal in which to publish by the community it serves.  However all  
> other things being equal, I prefer to publish in an open access  
> journal.  In this case, using Springer’s Open Choice, I found that  
> my article was discovered much more quickly.”
>
> “Making HKU’s research available to all interested parties in open  
> access format is a key goal of our Knowledge Exchange Initiative,  
> which holds that publicly-funded universities should return the  
> results of their research to the communities that funded them.”  
> added Professor Tam.
>
> “Several researchers at HKU have already used Springer’s Open Choice  
> service on their own.   We are, however, very pleased that we gained  
> such a key academic institution to carry out this pilot project.  We  
> value very highly the opportunity to further develop exciting new  
> publishing models in close cooperation with yet another respected  
> institution,” said Peter Hendriks, President STM Global Publishing &  
> Marketing at Springer.
>
> Notes to editor:
>
> About The University of Hong Kong
>
> Founded in 1911, HKU is Hong Kong's oldest university, with a long  
> heritage of academic excellence and service to the community. Today,  
> HKU is a world-class comprehensive research-led university, with  
> close to a hundred of its faculty ranked by the Institute for  
> Scientific Information as being among the world's top 1% of  
> scientists (http://www.hku.hk).
>
> The HKU Scholars Hub is the institutional repository of HKU, begun  
> in 2005. It collects, preserves, and showcases the intellectual  
> output of HKU, now numbering over 25,000 items, with over 1 million  
> downloads in 2009.  The Hub is a key vehicle to enable and measure  
> HKU’s Knowledge Exchange initiative. (http://hub.hku.hk).
>
> About Springer Science+Business Media
>
> Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading  
> global scientific publisher, delivering quality content through  
> innovative information products and services.  The company is also a  
> trusted provider of local-language professional publications in  
> Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands.  In the science,  
> technology and medicine (STM) sector, the group publishes around  
> 2,000 journals and more than 6,500 new books a year, as well as the  
> largest STM eBook Collection worldwide.  Springer has operations in  
> about 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and more than 5,000  
> employees.  In 2008, it generated annual sales of around EUR 880  
> million.
>
>
> Contacts:
>
> David Palmer | Scholarly Communications Coordinator  | University  
> Libraries | The University of Hong Kong | +852 2859 7004 | [log in to unmask]
>
> Eric Merkel-Sobotta | Springer Science+Business Media | +49 30 82  
> 787 5431 | [log in to unmask]
>
>
>