[dwheeler]

You're right it doesn't fully address the issue, but it does provide some pressure.

If an article is available for free immediately, there's no need to spend $6K to make it available at all.

Researchers want to be in specific locations because of their prestige. However, when all US-funded research is also available outside that location, the walled garden of prestige becomes rather porous. Especially since the reviewers typically aren't paid either.

[geoalchimista]

> Researchers want to be in specific locations because of their prestige. However, when all US-funded research is also available outside that location, the walled garden of prestige becomes rather porous. Especially since the reviewers typically aren't paid either.

You are assuming researchers are saintly figures dwelling in a vacuum who don't need to constantly prove to their department head or promotion evaluation committee of their worth. That is not the case. The walled gardens are desirable for some because their social functions are not easily replaceable.

One way to decouple the evaluation of scientific output from the walled garden is simply to stop using them as a gate-keeper in making hiring and research grant distribution decisions. But apart from the constant lip service, there is no momentum in doing anything concrete about this in academia.

[krull10]

I don’t think the promotion and prestige incentives can be fixed easily by academics. Their promotion, earnings, ability to change universities, and recognition depend on publishing in the most prestigious journals they can.

In contrast, the government could easily fix this by simply not providing the money currently required by such journals, which would force them to come up with models that can work with lower fees.

I hope you are right though!

[Vinnl]

> I don’t think the promotion and prestige incentives can be fixed easily by academics.

Well, not by most of them, but promotion boards usually contain academics. Part of the solution would be the slow one-funeral-at-the-time one of waiting.