New Working Paper: “Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate Ineffectiveness”
Here’s a new working paper from researchers in Canada and the UK.
Title
Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate Ineffectiveness
Authors
Yassine Gargouri
Université du Québec à Montréal
Vincent Lariviere
Université du Québec à Montréal
Yves Gingras
Université du Québec à Montréal
Tim Brody
University of Southampton
Les Carr
University of Southampton
Stevan Harnad
Université du Québec à Montréal
University of Southampton
Source
arXiv
Abstract
We have now tested the Finch Committee’s Hypothesis that Green Open Access Mandates are ineffective in generating deposits in institutional repositories. With data from ROARMAP on institutional Green OA mandates and data from ROAR on institutional repositories, we show that deposit number and rate is significantly correlated with mandate strength (classified as 1-12): The stronger the mandate, the more the deposits. The strongest mandates generate deposit rates of 70%+ within 2 years of adoption, compared to the un-mandated deposit rate of 20%. The effect is already detectable at the national level, where the UK, which has the largest proportion of Green OA mandates, has a national OA rate of 35%, compared to the global baseline of 25%.
The conclusion is that, contrary to the Finch Hypothesis, Green Open Access Mandates do have a major effect, and the stronger the mandate, the stronger the effect (the Liege ID/OA mandate, linked to research performance evaluation, being the strongest mandate model). RCUK (as well as all universities, research institutions and research funders worldwide) would be well advised to adopt the strongest Green OA mandates and to integrate institutional and funder mandates.
Direct to Full Text (7 pages; PDF)
Filed under: Data Files, Journal Articles, News, Open Access

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.