Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Flawed Method and No Data William Walsh 13 Nov 2006 20:38 UTC

Rick Anderson, in response to Stevan Harnad, writes:

>For what it's worth, I can tell you that if all of the content of a
>journal to which my library subscribes were to become available
>according to Green Road specifications (assuming that the articles
are
>posted immediately, permanently, and in a place where they can easily
be
>found), we would almost certainly cancel our subscription to that
>journal immediately and replace it with a ToC service.  I don't claim
to
>be the smartest librarian around, but even I know better than to pay
for
>something that's available for free.

Stevan Harnad, in response to the Beckett/Inger study, writes:

>...if/when librarians are ever inclined to cancel a journal X because
PP%
>of its articles are freely available, they are more likely to do so
if
>that PP% is immediately available than if it is only available 24
months
>after publication. But we could have guessed that without this study.
>
>The question is: Under what circumstances are librarians going to
cancel
>what, when?  This study does not and cannot tell us. Relative
preference
>models can only tell us that they are more likely to do it under
these
>conditions than under those conditions (and we already knew all
that).
>
>Having said all this, it is important to state clearly that, although
>there is still no evidence at all of self-archiving causing
>cancellations, it is possible, indeed probable, that self-archiving
will
>cause some cancellations, eventually.

Rick, Are you disagreeing with Stevan's critique?  I would hope
everyone would cancel a title under the conditions you describe.

Bill

--

William Walsh
Head, Acquisitions Department
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur Street, SE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: 404.651.2149
Fax: 404.651.2148
Email:  wwalsh@gsu.edu