OA Advocates Define “Equity”

The words “equity” and “equitable” have been batted around the past few years as a way to shame trusted intermediaries and publishers for anything that might be viewed as “inequitable.” And while the term has been ambiguously applied — and used heavily in the PR around the Nelson Memo especially — it has only loosely defined.

Until now, when a draft document from the self-proclaimed sources of all publishing wisdom and knowledge — at least by their own lights — deign to tell us what “equity” means, and it basically boils down to eschewing standards, payments, requirements, competing rights, or constraints of any kind.