Publishers Have A New Strategy For Neutralizing Open Access -- And It's Working

from the pushback-time dept

Over the last few years, Techdirt has been reporting on a steady stream of victories for open access. Along the way publishers have tried various counter-attacks, which all proved dismal failures. But there are signs that they have changed tack, and come up with a more subtle -- and increasingly successful -- approach.

Here, for example, is a fascinating analysis by Mike Taylor of what he calls "The progressive erosion of the RCUK open access policy". The RCUK is Research Councils UK, the umbrella group for the UK's seven Research Councils that hand out grants to academics. A year ago, RCUK released its draft policy on open access. As Taylor says:

it was excellent. It did not accept non-commercial clauses (on either Gold or Green OA), and allowed Green-OA embargoes of no more that six months (with a twelve-month exception for two humanities councils). "It is anticipated that the revised policy will be adopted in summer 2012"