[0] By way of disclaimer, the opinions in this post (and in any commentary that follows) are not those of my client or anyone else, and I claim sole responsibility for them.
[1] A third notable statement on OA, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities 1, uses largely the same definition as the Bethesda Statement. Together, these statements are referred to as the “three B's” of open access.
[2] In The Access Principle, John Willinsky identifies not two but ten “flavors” of open access, six of which comply with the Bethesda Definition. John Willinsky, “Ten Flavors of Open Access”, The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship 2 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006), 211-6.
[3] On the cost of textbooks and supplies for college students in the U.S.:
According to data from [the U.S. Department of] Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education DataSystem, first-time, full-time students attending 4-year private, nonprofit colleges wereestimated to spend $850 for books and supplies in their first year, or 8 percent of the cost of tuition and fees during academic year 2003-2004 . . .In contrast, first-time, full-time students payingin-state tuition at 4-year public colleges or universities were estimated to spend 26 percent of thecost of tuition and fees on books and supplies, or $898, during the same period. At 2-year publiccolleges, where low-income students are more likely to begin their studies and tuition and feesare lower, first-time, full-time students are estimated to spend 72 percent of the cost of tuitionand fees on books and supplies. Specifically, 2-year public colleges estimated that their first-time,full-time students would spend about $886 in 2003-2004 on books and supplies.
source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, College Textbooks: Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases 3 (Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office, 2005).
For anecdotal evidence on the cost of coursepacks specifically, see:
“Attack of the Wallet Killers 4”, editorial, The Harvard Crimson (18 February 2005).
Personal observation: When I was a student (not long ago), I had classes where the coursepack cost more than the textbook!
[4] Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Book and Journal Costs, 1986-2002, Create Change 5 (Washington, DC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, 2003), 3.
[5] See e.g. Willinsky, “Development”, The Access Principle 6 , 93-110.
[6] Disclosure: For these reasons, I am involved in an effort to write a guideline for Wikipedia 7 on the subject.
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