[OAI-eprints] Re: Critique of J-C Guedon's Serials Review article

[Stevan Harnad]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004, H.M. Gladney wrote:

> It seems to me that Harnad and Guedon share a delusion: that people's
> eventual behavior will be signficantly influenced by their opinions.
> 
> People HATE to be told what to do! 

No doubt. But perhaps people can distinguish (1) a suggestion as to
what might be in their own interests -- together with the evidence and
reasoning in support of that suggestion -- from (2) simply being told
what to do.

Those who cannot distinguish between the two are rather more like the 4-year-old
who insists on playing with the light-socket despite the evidence and the reasons
that it might be in his own interest not to do so -- because he HATES to be told
what to do! (Though there's perhaps no need to put such a lurid turn on it...)

Besides, it would be researchers' employers and funders who would be telling
researchers what to do -- if they want employment, salary increases, and research
funding -- if the OA self-archiving mandates that are currently being recommended
are actually implemented. (Employers and funders mind less being told what to do,
if it has -- as they say -- positive "resourcing implications"...)
http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php

And researchers (as I noted in the essay in question) have already *told* us that
whereas they will *not* self-archive if it is merely recommended, *will*
self-archive -- and self-archive *willingly* if it is required.
http://www.ingentaselect.com/rpsv/cw/alpsp/09531513/v17n3/s7/

Go figure!

Last: If researchers HATE to be told what to do, they LOVE to be given choices:
And between J-C Guedon's recommendations and my own diametrically opposite ones,
there is bounteous room for choice...

Stevan Harnad

> Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:14:03 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk>
> Subject: [OAI-eprints] Critique of J-C Guedon's Serials Review article
> 	on	Open Access
> To: BOAI Forum <boai-forum at ecs.soton.ac.uk>
> 
> I have written a critique of Jean-Claude Guedon's recent Serials Review
> article:
> 
>     The "Green" and "Gold" Roads to Open Access: The Case for Mixing and
> Matching, Jean-Claude Guidon, Serials Review 30(4) 2004
>     http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913
> 
> My critique is entitled: "Fast-Forward on the Green Road to Open Access: The
> Case Against Mixing Up Green and Gold
> 
> Its full text is at: 
> 
>     http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcrit.htm