[INDOLOGY] open access issues in Europe

[Jonathan Silk]

Dear Colleagues,

the following was just brought to my attention: I think that all of us in
Europe, but also world-wide, should care about this.

*LERU Statement for the 2016 Dutch EU Presidency*

*Christmas is over. Research funding should go to research, not to
publishers!*



Nowadays, European universities pay publishers significant parts of their
university budget. Hundreds of millions of euro's. Money which is not
directly spent on research and education, even though it is largely
taxpayers´ money. As Harvard University already denounced in 2012
<http://gantercourses.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Faculty-Advisory-Council-Memorandum-on-Journal-Pricing-%C2%A7-THE-HARVARD-LIBRARY.pdf>,
many large journal publishers have rendered the situation “fiscally
unsustainable and academically restrictive”, with some journals costing as
much as $40,000 per year (and publishers drawing profits of 35% or more).
If one of the wealthiest universities in the world can no longer afford it,
who can? It is easy to picture the struggle of European universities with
tighter budgets. In addition to subscription costs, academic research
funding is also largely affected by “Article Processing Charges” (APC),
which come at an additional cost of €2000/article, on average, when making
individual articles Gold Open Access. Some publishers are in this way even
being paid twice for the same content ("double dipping").



Is this how the EU envisions access to the results of academic research?

"Christmas is over", says Prof Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General LERU: "I
call upon the European Commission and the forthcoming Dutch EU Presidency
to work with all stakeholders and bodies involved, to bring sensible
solutions to the fore."

In the era of Open Science, Open Access to publications is one of the
cornerstones of the new research paradigm and business models must support
this transition. It should be one of the principal objectives of
Commissioner Carlos Moedas and the Dutch EU Presidency (January-June 2016)
to ensure that this transition happens. Further developing the EU´s
leadership in research and innovation largely depends on it.



*With this statement "**Moving Forwards on Open Access*
<http://www.leru.org/files/general/LERU%20Statement%20Moving%20Forwards%20on%20Open%20Access(1).pdf>*",
LERU calls upon all universities, research institutes, research funders and
researchers to sign this statement and give a clear signal towards the
European Commission and the Dutch EU Presidency.*

*Sign up to the LERU Statement on Open Access: *
*http://www.leru.org/index.php/public/extra/signtheLERUstatement/*
<http://www.leru.org/index.php/public/extra/signtheLERUstatement/>

-- 
J. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
2311 BZ Leiden
The Netherlands

copies of my publications may be found at
http://www.buddhismandsocialjustice.com/silk_publications.html


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