Finch Access Plan Unlikely To Fly Across The Atlantic

Report draws US notice but experts say journals will not 'play RCUK game'. Paul Jump reports

Felice Levine, executive director of learned society the American Educational Research Association, told the Academy of Social Science's Implementing Finch conference last week that the Finch report on open access had been "noticed" in the US.

However, she said she did not expect its strong preference for author-pays gold open access over self-archiving green open access - which has been endorsed by the UK government and the research councils - to be echoed in US policy.

The report, which was headed by former Keele University vice-chancellor Dame Janet Finch, made clear that the speed at which other countries moved to implement gold open access would be crucial to minimising the cost of the transition in the UK. During the transition period, UK institutions would be required to pay article fees to publish their own research as well as subscription fees to access the research produced in other countries...