A general staff development presentation on open access.

1. Open access
Chris Awre
Library and Learning Innovation
Staff Development event, 22nd October 2013

2. Agenda
• 9:15 – Introduction / structure for the session
• 9:20 – Aims for the day
• 9:30 – Open access
• 10:20 – Funder and policy trends
• 10:45 – Break
• 11:00 – University role in open access
• 11:30 – Measuring open access
• 11:50 – Summary and wrap-up
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3. Aims for the day

4. Aims for the day
• Please introduce yourself
• Three questions
– What are you looking to learn about open access?
– What is your experience of open access so far?
– What, if any, concerns do you have about open access?
• Answers will be re-visited at the end to check they have been
addressed
• Beyond the event?
– Open Access Week, http://www.openaccessweek.org/
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5. Open access

6. „Traditional‟ publishing
• An article/book is written by an author
• The article/book is submitted to a publisher
– For articles, a copyright transfer assignment is frequently required
– For books a publishing agreement (contract) will be agreed
• The publisher edits, typesets and, where appropriate, gets the item peerreviewed
• The article/book is then published (in print or electronic form), for a fee
– Journals are sold via subscription
– Books are sold individually
• The content is often owned by the publisher, requiring their permission
to use it for purposes other than personal study
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7. Open access
• What is open access?
– “Open access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of
charge, and free of most copyright and licensing
restrictions” (Peter Suber,
http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm)
• Free of price barriers
• Free of permission barriers
• Why open access?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoN-S0-YkZk
– Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG)
• http://open-access.org.uk
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8. Why open access?
• Improved visibility of research
– Particularly to those unable to access all the journal or book
literature
• Greater impact through wider awareness
– Difference demonstrated through a range of studies
• Saves money
– Moves away from increasing journal subscription costs
• Easier to facilitate and manage use and re-use of outputs
– Use of Creative Commons licensing
• Demonstrate greater value of publicly-funded research
– Government(s) focused on this
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9. Licensing
• Key to open access is stating clearly how the open content is
licensed
– This clarifies what can be done with the content
– Useful in protecting the content against mis-use
• Licensing vs. copyright
– Licensing tells you what you can do with the content
– Copyright tells you what you can‟t do with the content
• International approach to licensing is required
– Research is global
– Creative Commons is widely used for this
• http://creativecommons.org
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10. Open access options
• Gold open access
– The publication of an article in a journal, where the
journal is freely available to the readers
– The publication of a book, where the book is freely
available to readers
• Green open access
– The publication of an article/book in a digital repository,
which is freely accessible via the Internet
• Both routes may or may not involve a publisher
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11. Open access distinction
• Anything published on open access can be either
– Gratis (Free as in beer), or
– Libre (Free as in speech)
• True open access is Libre, as it adheres to the broader definition of
„open‟
– “A piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use,
reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the
requirement to attribute and share-alike.”
• http://opendefinition.org/
• Much open access is Gratis
– It is important to be aware of what rights are involved when
publishing or accessing open access publications
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12. Gold open access
• Article/book is published through an intermediary
– Publisher, Learned Society, University, Department, etc.
• The content is openly available to readers without charge
• Two models
– Use a completely open access route/intermediary
• No money involved, as funding is from a central source
– Pay an article or author processing charge (APC)
• Rates vary widely, £50 - >£3,000
• Third leg
– Hybrid open access
• Pay an APC for publication in a journal normally charging a
subscription, to open up your article within this
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13. Gold OA services
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), http://www.doaj.org
– E.g., Public Library of Science (PLoS), http://www.plos.org
• OAPEN, http://www.oapen.org / DOAB,
http://www.doabooks.org
– E.g., Open Book Publishers,
http://www.openbookpublishers.com
• See also all major publishers for their open access options
• Beware predatory publishers
– http://www.scholarlyoa.com/publishers
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14. Green open access
• Depositing an article/book in a digital repository
– Directly (self-archiving) or via a local intermediary
• The article/book may have been published via a traditional route
– Hence, there may be an embargo on open access through the
repository
– Version made open may be final accepted manuscript, not
published version
• The repository may be
– Institutional, subject, national, international
– Deposit can be in one or more, as required or found to be useful
• Repositories can also hold associated supplementary content
– E.g., Data, working papers, media files, etc.
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15. Green OA services
• Local institutional repository, Hydra
– http://hydra.hull.ac.uk
– Deposit is through Converis
– Service is being further developed this year
• Subject repositories, e.g.,
– Biomedicine – EuroPubMedCentral
– Physics and related disciplines – arXiv
– Social Sciences – Social Sciences Research Network
– Economics – RePeC
– Etc.
• All are crawled by Google
• International directory of open access repositories
– OpenDOAR, http://opendoar.org
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16. Open access comparison
Intermediary
Publishe
r
A
Output
Article
U
T
H
R
E
££
Publishe
r
O
R
££
Article
D
E
££
Repository
A
Article
R
££
Organisation
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17. Areas of debate
• Cost
– Who pays, and how do they pay?
– Gold open access
• Shift from reader to author in paying for research dissemination
• Publishers benefitting from subscriptions and APCs
– Green open access
• Management and maintenance of repositories
• Peer review
– How should peer review be organised?
– Who should organise it?
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18. Areas of debate II
• Copyright
– Who should own the content?
• SPARC author addendum can be used in negotiation
– Who needs what rights to be able to carry out their role in
the publication process?
• Re-use
– Should the content of an article or book be re-usable by
others in different ways?
• If so, what rights need to be stated?
• Is licensing the best way of addressing this? If not, what could
be?
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19. To sum up
• Open access is a different approach to research
dissemination and publication
– Reader can access the research for free
– This can lead to wider visibility and greater impact of the
research
• Gold and Green mechanisms have emerged as the primary
routes for achieving this goal
• There are implications and outstanding issues for both
routes
– Changing a 300-year old system takes time!
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20. Author considerations
• Is open access an option for disseminating research?
• Is there a funder requirement for open access?
• Which route is best suited/required?
– Gold open access
– Green open access
• What do I need to do to enable the preferred route?
– Where are funds available to support an APC?
– Which version of the research output can I put in the repository?
• If using a publisher, should I retain or cede copyright?
• How will the work be peer reviewed?
• Which license is best suited/required?
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21. Discussion

22. Discussion
• Consider the following questions
– What are the barriers to using open access?
– What reasons are there not to use open access?
• 10 mins discussion
• 10 mins feedback
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23. Funder and policy trends

24. Open access in the UK (and beyond)
• Government interest
• Finch Report
• Research Councils UK
• HEFCE
• European Union / Horizon 2020
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25. Government interest
“The Government, in line with our overarching commitment to
transparency and open data, is committed that publicly-funded
research should be accessible free of charge. Free and open access to
taxpayer-funded research offers significant social and economic
benefits by spreading knowledge, raising the prestige of UK research
and encouraging technology transfer”
Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth
Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, 2011
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26. The Finch Report
• Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to
research publications (July 2012)
• Explored the two open access options
– Addressed question: How to make open access work on a scalable
basis for all publicly-funded research?
• Recommendations:
– Gold OA (also Hybrid OA)
– Public funders should „establish more effective and flexible
arrangements to meet the costs of publishing in open access and
hybrid journals‟
– Policies to minimise restrictions on use and re-use of publications
– More work should be done to explore models for open access
monographs
– Repositories should be developed to complement Gold OA,
particularly in regard of associated data and grey literature
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27. Finch debate
• The Government accepted all the Finch recommendations in principle
– No new money
– The Committee is currently reconvening to review progress
• Many are unconvinced that Finch has chosen the right course
– Open access has been largely welcomed
– Gold OA, though, appears to be giving more money to publishers (and
has raised uncertainty as to the source of that money)
– Expectation that reduced subscription costs will pay for APCs has
been received with scepticism, but is being monitored
• Parliamentary enquiry, 2013
– House of Commons Business, Innovation & Skills Select Committee
– Strongly criticised Finch Committee and the methodology used
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28. RCUK open access policy
• “Researchers, as the generators of all of the research papers
and responsible for much of their peer review, are expected
to publish any peer-reviewed research papers which
acknowledge Research Council funding in journals that are
compliant with the RCUK policy on Open Access.
• All papers must include details of the funding that supported
the research and, if applicable, a statement on how the
underlying research materials – such as data, samples or
models – can be accessed.”
• Came into force from 1st April 2013
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29. RCUK policy overview
• Open to either Green or Gold, but prefers Gold
• Researchers must use a compliant journal
– SHERPA FACT service developed to advise on this
• http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/fact
• Gold open access
– Licensed to enable maximum re-use – CC-BY
• Green open access
– Embargoes should ideally be no longer than six months
• Many publishers insist on 12-48 months
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30. RCUK – additional points
• Gold OA preferred due to publisher role in QA process
– But Green OA considered perfectly acceptable where no Gold OA
compliant journal is available
• RCUK views open access as a journey, not an event
– Five-year transition anticipated
• RCUK terms and conditions have been amended to incorporate the open
access policy
• RCUK will expect an annual report on adoption from each institution
• RCUK policy covers journal articles and conference proceedings only at
the moment
• Guidance has been circulated to all RCUK PIs
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31. Supporting Gold OA
• Gold OA is likely to incur an APC
– Finch estimate for average cost is £1,450 per article
• RCUK have contributed a small pot of funds towards
covering costs
– Covers costs of ~11 papers
• No other central funds have been committed beyond this
– HEFCE QR allocation could be assigned for such use
– Grants to Research Councils can no longer include APC costs
• LLI (IM) will process claims against available fund
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32. Supporting Green OA
• All staff should add their research outputs to Converis
– Converis link to Hydra will allow transfer of research outputs to the
repository
– Embargo management, via Converis
– Supplementary data/information should also be added
• If this is not a formal research output it can be deposited through the repository
directly
• Subject repository deposit
– Options for support being explored
• Highlight available repositories by subject area
• Make use of established processes, e.g., EuroPubMed
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33. HEFCE consultation
• HEFCE are consulting on behalf of all HE funding councils
on the mechanisms for making all post-REF 2014
submissions open access
– Focus on journal articles and conference proceedings, in
line with RCUK
– Neutral with regard to Green or Gold
– Will come into force in 2016
– Retrospective open access will not be acceptable
• Aim to facilitate access and re-use
• Investigating open access books for future REF assessments
– cf. Wellcome, which already mandates open access books
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34. European Union / Horizon 2020
• “Open access will be mandatory for all publications
produced with funding from Horizon 2020, and
contributions to the costs for such publications will be
eligible for reimbursement. The nature of the open access
publications, whether through “gold” or “green” routes, will
be left to the discretion of the grant recipient.”
• Horizon 2020 starts in January 2014
• Further details will be made available shortly
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35. To conclude
• Government has made it clear that open access is a high
priority, and that is is here to stay for publicly-funded
research
• Policies are now identifying how to implement this most
effectively
• Debate on Green vs. Gold rumbles on
– Local preferences may need to tally with external factors
• Understanding open access options will enable informed
response to external requirements
– Make the most of open access, rather than be told
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36. Break

37. University role in open
access

38. What role should the University have in open
access?
• Research dissemination has frequently been an individual
concern
– Academic freedom of choice
– Academic knowledge of best/preferred routes
• Open access mechanisms require local management
– Gold
• Management of funds
– Green
• Management of repositories
• HEFCE assumption that institutions will play a role
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39. Institutions and research dissemination
• Open access offers an alternative way of disseminating
research outputs
• How might institutions use this
– As part of a research (dissemination) strategy?
– Without compromising academic freedom of choice?
– In a manageable way, avoiding bureaucracy?
• At what level should institutions place consideration of
research dissemination activity?
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40. Scenarios
• Do nothing
• Provide a repository, relying on academics to interact with this directly
(self-archiving)
• Provide a repository and associated staffing resource to manage
institutional research outputs
• Provide a fund through which available external monies can be managed
to pay for APCs
• Provide institutional monies within a fund to pay for APCs
• A combination of these
• All of the above (minus the first option!)
• Other
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41. Other?
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42. Measuring open access

43. Open access and measuring impact
• Impact = Journal impact factors
– Possibly also H-index, half-life, etc.
– All measures based on formal citation
• Impact factors based on citation analysis by Thomson
Reuters, based on Web of Knowledge
– Alternative method created by Elsevier, based on Scopus
• Creates contrasting results at times
• Many others use variants on citation analysis to measure
different aspects of usage
– Incl. Google PageRank
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44. Limitations of impact factors
• There have been criticisms of impact factors
–
–
–
–
–
Focus on journal title, not the articles
Many citations are self-citation
Many citations are quoted, not read
Value varies across disciplines (with citation practice)
Not all journals are covered by this analysis
• Impact factors rely on formal publication and citation
– They cannot be used for alternative forms of publications
– Exclusive use only provides some of the picture
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45. Impact factors and open access
• Open access journals (Gold open access)
– Many have impact factors
– Impact rose faster than for subscription journals
• Easier to access and therefore cite papers
– Many open access journals are not covered by Web of
Knowledge or Scopus
• Green open access (via repositories)
– Impact factors are not calculated for repositories
• Additional measures are needed for measuring impact of
openly accessible materials
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46. Summary and wrap-up

47. Summary
• Open access is a novel way of disseminating research
– Taking advantage of new technologies
– Redefining publication
– Shifting costs
• It can have great advantages
– Mechanisms, green and gold, both work well
– Both also still need development
• Government interest is adding a stick to the carrot of wider impact
• It is important to take ownership of dissemination choices
– Look to use open access effectively
– Exploit alternative ways of measuring impact
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48. Looking ahead
• Engage in open access discussion within your discipline
– Within the Department
– Beyond the University
• Identify how you might take advantage of open access for your
own research dissemination
– What are your aims when disseminating your research?
• Support is available via openaccess@hull.ac.uk
– But please be aware that this is limited at this time and is
focused on broad queries
– Specific use is for RCUK APC payment requests
• Please feed back on this staff development event so it can be
further developed for the future
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49. Thank you