Genome Biology | Full text | The Research Works Act: a comment
Genome Biology | Full text | The Research Works Act: a comment
Of course, this is quite the opposite of what RWA actually represents, which is additional government regulation contrary to the spirit of the free market. In fact, market forces scare traditional publishing models, because left to their own devices they will arrive at the most efficient use of capital, which is undoubtedly, for the funding agencies, open access publishing. Given that Federal funding ultimately pays for both access to publications and publishing costs, the best value option is an open access model. This is because the cost of publication should not vary according to access level, only the size of the audience able to access the material. To prevent Federal agencies from pursuing what is therefore a no-brainer option, RWA is designed to skew the market; it leaves the decision of which model to publish manuscripts under to individual authors, thereby creating a disconnect between the source of capital and the choice of how it is spent. No freely operating market would tolerate those paying for the product (the taxpayers) being barred from access to its benefits.
a tear of joy rolled down my face — it’s hard to see a colleague that understands free markets and govt intervention! (we might disagree about the role and weight of each one, and we can always discuss about better policies, but knowledge of the opposing models and not only of their straw man versions is always very nice).
