On Fri, 17 Sep 2010, Andrew A. Adams, Meiji University, Japan, wrote:

> AAA:
> During Open Access Week in October both Otaru University of Commerce and
> Hokkaido University will be holding meetings to promote deposit and adoption
> of a mandate. I have accepted invitations to speak at both events, arranged
> by Shigeki Sugita of the library at Otaru University of Commerce and Masako
> Suzuki of the library at Hokkaido University. Both are keen supporters of
> Green OA and a deposit mandate and are working hard to persuade managers and
> faculty at these two very different though physically close universities to
> adopt mandates (Otaru, being small and with limited funds has an access
> problem itself, whereas Hokkaido is one of the top ten universities in Japan

Splendid news from AAA, Asian Archivangelist!

> and provides full funding of toll-gate access fees for its staff, who
> nevertheless lose impact for their publications when they are not deposited,
> unless published in an OA journal)

This is the familiar "gold rush," which impels institutions to imagine,
unthinkingly, that what they need to do in order to have OA today
is to spend their scarce resources to subsidize the costs of Gold OA
publication -- even though most of the potential funds to do so are
still tied up in paying the institutional subscriptions that are covering
the costs of journal publication today. And meanwhile these institutions
are not adopting the cost-free Green OA self-archiving mandates that would
provide OA to all their subscription journal articles too!

University of Michigan is the latest US University that has, like
Hokkaido, committed to subsidizing Gold OA without first mandating Green
OA: http://bit.ly/pregold

University of Michigan is the 9th university to commit to COPE. Only two
(Harvard and MIT) of the nine COPE signatories to date are among the 170
institutions, departments and funders that have already mandated Green
OA self-archiving for all of their refereed research output. The other
seven COPE signatories should first emulate Harvard and MIT on providing
Green, before provisioning Gold: http://www.oacompact.org/signatories/

So should Hokkaido University.

For the record: An institution or funder committing to COPE (or SCOAP3
or pre-emptive Gold OA "Membership" deals) is fine *after* the institution
or funder has already mandated Green OA self-archiving of all of its
refereed research output; but it is both wasteful and counterproductive
*before* (or *instead*).

Here are some links that might help you at Hokkaido and Otaru during
OA week in explaining the logic and pragmatics of subsidizing Gold only
after mandating Green:

Against Squandering Scarce Research Funds on Pre-Emptive Gold OA
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/576-guid.html

Pre-Emptive Gold Fever Strikes Again
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/563-guid.html

On Throwing Money At Gold OA Without First Mandating Green OA
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/557-guid.html

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

SCOAP3 and the pre-emptive "flip" model for Gold OA conversion
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/421-guid.html

Clarifying the Logic of Open Choice: I (of 2)
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/222-guid.html

Best wishes,

Stevan Harnad