Transcript Document
Open Access in the UK Developments since the Finch Report Michael Jubb Research Information Network 5th Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing Riga 18 September 2013 Accessibility, sustainability, excellence The Question and the Process how to expand access, in a sustainable way, to peer-reviewed research publications bearing mind the strong competitive position of the UK research community group of 13 representatives of universities, libraries, funders, learned societies, publishers different groups with different interests no perfect solution: ‘best-fit’ Mechanisms and Success Criteria more UK articles available globally more global articles available in the UK sustain high-quality research sustain high-quality services to authors and readers financial health of publishing and learned societies costs to HE and funders open access articles & journals repositories extensions to licensed access Conclusions no single mechanism meets all the success criteria a mixed economy for the foreseeable future transition to OA should be accelerated in an ordered way tensions between interests of key stakeholders, and risks to all of them risks and costs associated with each of the three mechanisms the global environment promote innovation and sustain what is valuable Recommendations balanced package of moves towards Gold, Green and extensions to licensing clear policy direction towards Gold better funding arrangements, focusing responsibilities in universities, not funders minimise restrictions on use and re-use develop repository infrastructure caution about limitations on embargoes future negotiations on subscriptions to take account of growth in APC revenues expand and rationalise licensing universities and National Health Service SMEs, voluntary and public sectors, public libraries Initial responses Government accepts recommendations £10m one-off transition funding RCUK policy announcement consultation on REF 2020 universities establishing publication funds, policies, procedures and systems see RIN report: http://www.researchinfonet.org/publish/rcuk-oarequirements/ Research Councils UK (RCUK) policies requirement from 1 April 2013 for block grant to universities to meet costs of APCs Gold with a CC-BY licence (preferred), or Green with 6/12 months maximum embargo (12/24 months for humanities and social sciences) assumes c45% of articles from Research Councilfunded projects will be published in Gold OA journals in 2013-14, rising to 75% by 2017-18 management of publication funds in hands of universities reporting and monitoring arrangements So how’s it going? Implementation real momentum, but mixed progress two Parliamentary inquiries lively debate sometimes driven by entrenched attitudes? Balance? imbalance between work to increase access to UK-authored publications across the world work to increase access to global articles in the UK Pace of change sufficient attention to detail? keeping everyone on board? Green vs Gold Green with short embargoes (or none) the cheap option? Gold the sustainable option? parity of esteem for Gold and Green publications? Funding and costs publishing costs integral to research costs? funds from both sides of the dual support system? uncertainties about costs to individual universities offsets between subscription costs and APCs? International developments EU, Australia, Science Europe, OSTP, Global Research Council, G8, California…. impact on UK, and on costs Embargoes the 6/12 and 12/24 month policy sticks and carrots? principles for setting embargoes half-lives? disciplinary differences? protection for learned societies a separate but important issue Extensions to licensing walk-in access in public libraries initiative little progress with health service, voluntary organisations or SMEs Infrastructure repository infrastructure? infrastructure for Gold? interoperability and information flows Co-ordination all stakeholders working together? need for a disinterested co-ordinator? Thank you Questions? Michael Jubb www.researchinfonet.org