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Learned Societies have continued to warn of potential "very negative consequences" to the government's Open Access policy, following publication of an open letter condemning the policy as "a real threat to the international standing of British universities and research.
The open letter, published earlier this week, was signed by 11 bodies including the Royal Historical Society and the British Philosophical Association.
Further concern was aired at a House of Lords Science & Technology committee hearing into Open Access on Tuesday (29th January).
Helena Djurkovic, c.e.o. of the Political Studies Association, a signatory to the open letter, told The Bookseller there could be "very, very negative consequences" to the current policy.
She said: "Everyone is concerned that there has not been a proper cost-benefit analysis. We know the cost in the short to mid-term but we don¹t know about long term and actually there is growing evidence that other countries are looking at us and saying: ŒWe are not going to do this." We need much more debate about it and much more consultation on the issues."
Universities minister David Willetts has also been criticised for basing the policy mainly on research among the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community, while the different issues of the social sciences, arts and humanities (HSS) have been overlooked.
Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society, told the House of Lords committee that HSS subjects would benefit from the embargo for gold model publishing increasing from 12 to at least 24 months.
She added: "The US are saying they have no intention of complying with the UK requirements... Many learned societies there will be taking their time to look at their longer term policies in terms of income growth and income resources... We do not have the resources that commercial publishers can fall back on."
Steven Hall, managing director of Institute of Physics Publishing, argued that the UK will end up paying additional costs indefinitely if the rest of the world does not follow the Open Access policy.
He added: "The danger is in a rush to gold Open Access which is not properly funded: authors will be pushed to cheaper options which do not practise the same peer review."