The funding agencies in the U.S. typically provide a) publication page-charges by the journals; b) "indirect costs" which are used to fund the library purchase of journals as well as run the campus. The notion that taxpayers "should not pay twice" seems to say that a) and b) should be ended. Furthermore no one will need to pay for a journal subscription to read the contents, which (I predict) will lead to a very large falloff in (c) paid subscriptions. The petition will mean journals that get their funds from a-b-c, will be sharply curtailed financially. (there are also membership societies that have journals and I think they will lose a lot of subscribers too.) So who will step in to support the academic journals?? the taxpayers? the tuition payers? the foundations? I fear none of them will.

Richard Jensen