1. Open-access
publishing and the
transformation of
scholarly
communication
SciELO15, 23rd October, 2013
Mark Patterson, Executive Director, eLife

2. March 23rd, 2001
Harold Varmus
Pat Brown
Mike Eisen

3. Open
>
access
Free
access

4. Feb 1st
2001

5. October, 2003
October, 2004

7. Oct 13th
2005

8. Growth of open access publishing
OA journals with APC
OA journals no APC
OA journals with print subscription
Laakso and Björk BMC Medicine 2012 10:124 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-124

9. %PubMed available as open access in
PMC
14.0%
12.0%
10.0%
8.0%
6.0%
4.0%
2.0%
0.0%
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

10. Where’s the disruption?
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News070712-X1.1flare.html

11. First disruption
The megajournal

13. PLOS ONE growth
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

14. Open-access
megajournals

15. Megajournals as a disruptive force
•
•
•
•
Cost-effective
Scalable, and can grow quickly
Great for authors
Strong competition for conventional
approaches
• An open platform for research
communication

16. Second disruption
Direct funding of OA
publishing

17. Print
Online

18. Estimates the
proportion of open
access content in
Brazil (2008-2011) to
be 63%
“…no doubt due to
the important
contribution of
SciELO.”

19. SciELO as a disruptive force
•
•
•
•
Cost-effective
Scalable, and can grow quickly
Great for authors
Strong competition for conventional
approaches
• An open platform for research
communication

20. Funders taking direct action

21. eLife: motivations
Swift, fair
decisive
process
Exploit
digital
Media
Serve
science
Open
access

22. eLife – scope
• BROAD
From basic and theoretical work to
translational, applied and clinical research.
• SELECTIVE
Highly influential work that advances understanding,
opens new doors or has real-world impacts.

23. Editors
• Editor-in-Chief
• 2 Deputy eds
• 17 Senior eds
• Board of
reviewing eds
~180

24. eLife Lens http://lens.elifesciences.org/

25. Third disruption
Reforming research
assessment

26. Researchers (authors
and readers)
Institutions
Librarians
Funders
Research
assessment
The public
Policy makers
Publishers

27. Some impact is hard to measure
“Dear Public Library of Science people,
I just listened to a mouse song on line…
I do not have the funds to subscribe to the traditional science journals.
Tomorrow my students will hear the same mouse song I listened to and I am
sure they will be as enchanted and interested as I am. The idea of open
access to original research papers is very exciting to someone in my
position…
I can assure you that the availability of research papers will benefit the
future of scientific research by providing motivation and stimulation for
millions of fledgling scientists.
Sincerely,
Science Teacher”

28. The impact
factor is…
• a journal-based metric
• proprietary
• incomplete
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m2w2/191545978/sizes/z/in/photostream/

30. Citations
Policy and practice
Media
Usage
Twitter
Textbooks
Reference managers
Wikipedia

33. v10

34. New metrics and indicators of
scholarship
• From one measure to many
• From journal to article
• From one output to many

35. • Recommendations for
publishers, funders, institutio
ns, metrics suppliers, and
researchers
• >9000 signatories
• Make sure you sign up today
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24736216@N07/7758828268/ (CC BY-NC2.0)

36. Summary
• Open access publishing is here to stay
• Disruptive forces are at work




megajournals
direct funding
reform of assessment
and much more…

37. Open access is one
part of a much
broader transition
Interoperability
Assessment
Sustainability
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandham/4499539060/

38. Happy birthday!
Thank you
Mark Patterson
m.patterson@elifesciences.org