From the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Open Access

[16 January 2013. With thanks to Mike Taylor for a helpful comment about timings and the availability of a Windows Media Player version of the recording. I've reflected this with small revisions below.]

Here is a video of today's session (Silverlight-based, but there is also a Windows Media Player version) of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Open Access with Dame Janet Finch, who gave evidence for just under an hour from 11.40. (In Silverlight the time is shown in the bottom righ of the screen; in the Windows Media Player version I believe you have to slide to 57 minutes 55 seconds in.)

According to my notes, the Chair John Krebs says in his introduction:

“We are not here to question the whole Open Access agenda. We take that as a given. We are not questioning the recommendations of the report. We are very much focused on the current plans for implementation and on the concerns that have been raised with us by various stake-holders which you allude to in your written evidence.”

During the session 4 or 5 members of the committee in addition to John Krebs questioned Janet Finch. Those whose names I noted were Martin Rees, Margaret Sharp, Alec Broers and Robert Winston. All seemed variously well informed, not least Martin Rees who looks to be aware of the concerns of Humanities and Social Sciences societies.

Janet Finch gave a confident and calm account of the work of the committee that produced the Finch Report; and the effect of cross-questioning by knowledgeable and research-experienced members of the committee served to clarify and open up the thinking behind the Finch Report pretty well.

The full session on 29 January, when Research Councils UK, the Higher Education Funding Council, and Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts will give evidence, should be interesting (if you are interested in Open Access). Whatever the Committee recommends, the transcript of today's session (due next week?), along with the written evidence that is submitted (including Janet Finch's) will be worth perusing.