CHORUS is a Trojan Horse

[Stevan Harnad]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2014 at 7:14 AM, David Wojick <dwojick at craigellachie.us>
wrote:


> *DW: *The timing, terms and territory of the U.S. Public Access program
> are all controlled by the Feds.
>

"The Feds," as we all know, are government decision-makers whose decisions
are influenced by lobbying. The research community, though it is huge,
cannot afford -- and hence does not have -- a lobby. The publishing
industry, in contrast, has oodles of dosh for lobbying "The Feds," and does
so, vigorously, particularly about Open Access (OA), over which the
publishing industry is desperately trying to retain control.

In the US, this attempt to retain control takes the form of CHORUS: "*Let
us handle OA for you; we will see to it that (our) articles are made OA at
the end of (our!) OA embargoes; we will host or deposit our versions of our
articles for you*."

That is how the publishing lobby is trying to retain control over the
timing, terms and territory of the US Public Access program.


> *DW:* To claim otherwise is nonsense.
>

(I imagine that when you are lobbying or consulting for the Feds you
express yourself more courteously, David.)


> *DW:* The publishers have no control whatsoever. Which federal agencies,
> if any, will use CHORUS is completely up to those agencies.
>

 The publishers have no control over what policy "the Feds" ultimately
adopt, fortunately. They are merely trying to lobby to get them to cede the
control to them, by adopting CHORUS.

And you, David, as a consultant for OSTI, are attempting to incline them
toward adopting CHORUS. In this, I think you are as profoundly mistaken as
you have been in your prior advocacy against measures to combat global
warming <http://www.desmogblog.com/david-wojick>.

*DW: *If it is not going your way that is the choice of the Feds, not the
> publishers.
>

I am not a professional consultant or lobbyist. I am a researcher, and "my
way" is what I think is best for research, researchers, their institutions,
their funders, and the general public whose taxes pay for the research and
for whose benefit the research is conducted.

And mandatory Green Open Access Self-Archiving is not "my way" but the way
of 271 institutions and 90 Funders <htttp://roarmap.eprints.org>. It is one
of those funders (OSTI) that you are endeavouring to steer toward CHORUS. I
and others are trying to alert all OA policy-makers to the fact that CHORUS
is a Trojan Horse and very much against the interests of the scale and
speed of growth of Open Access.

*Stevan Harnad*
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