Open Access: Gaining the Momentum

Buhle Mbambo-Thata

Executive Director UNISA Library,

(formerly Advisory Board member of eifl.net)

Outline of presentation

• Definition of open access• Impetus of OA• Budapest Open access initiative• Power of Open Access• Eifl Open Access programme• Some specific examples of country application• Conclude

Definition of open access

• In using the term 'open access‘, we mean the free availability of peer-reviewed literature on the public internet, permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles. (Budapest Open Access Initiative, February 2002)

Driving force behind open access – Dissatisfaction at all levels

• Authors: their work is not seen by all their peers – do not receive the recognition they deserve

• Readers: cannot view all research literature they need – less effective

• Libraries: cannot satisfy information needs of their users

Open AccessWhat is it?

Call for free, unrestricted access on the public internet to the literature that scholars give to the world without expectation of payment.

Why? Widen dissemination, accelerate research, enrich education, share learning amongst all nations, enhance return on taxpayer investment in research.

How?Use existing funds to pay for dissemination, not access.

Budapest Open Access Initiative( February 2002)Two complementary strategies:

• Self-Archiving: Scholars should be able to deposit their refereed journal articles in open electronic archives which conform to Open Archives Initiative standards – Directory of Open Access Repositories (http://www.opendoar.org/ ) lists 1158 repositories

• Open-Access Journals: Journals will not charge subscriptions or fees for online access. Instead, they should look to other sources to fund peer-review and publication (e.g., publication charges) - Lund Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/) – lists 3441 peer-reviewed open access journals

http://www.soros.org/openaccess/

The Power of Open Access – Self Archiving

• For 72% of papers published in the Astrophysical Journal free versions of the paper are available (mainly through ArXiv)

• These 72% of papers are, on average, cited twice as often as the remaining 28% that do not have free versions.

Greg Schwarz • Tim Brody from Southampton has shown that papers

for which there is also a free version available have, on average, greater citations than those that are only available through subscriptions

http://citebase.eprints.org/isi_study

The Power of Open Access – Journals

• Open access PNAS papers have 50% more full-text downloads than non-open access papers

http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0505/msg01580.html

• …and are on average twice as likely to be cited http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/

journal.pbio.0040157

Open Access Policies

As the public policy agenda develops we are seeing an increasing number of policies relating to open access from:

– Research groups– Universities– Research centers– Funding bodies– Governments– National and international bodies

Funding Bodies - The Future• The last three years has seen funding agencies in

Europe and US begin to take an interest in open access

• They see dissemination as part of the research process and publication costs as research costs

• We will continue to see increasing high-level support for open access

• We can expect further policy statements over the next year, some of which will mandate deposit in suitable repositories

• These policies and high-level support will underpin work on institutional repositories

Self-Archiving PoliciesResearch Organisations: • CERN – Requires researchers to deposit papers in the CERN repository• CNRS (Centre National de la recherche scientifique)

Institutions: the University of Helsinki, Finland – June 2008 Harvard University – February 2008 Queensland University of Technology Bielefeld University University of Bremen University of Hamburg Universidade do Minho University of Southampton Case Western Reserve University University of Oslo

Summary By Type (http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php): 4 DEPARTMENTAL Mandates 4 Proposed FUNDER Mandates22 FUNDER Mandates 1 Proposed INSTITUTIONAL Mandates18 INSTITUTIONAL Mandates 2 Proposed MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL

Mandates44 TOTAL Mandates 7 TOTAL Proposed Mandates

Funder policies - mandates• Australian Research Council• National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia• Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Research Foundation Flanders)• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)• European Research Council (ERC)• Agence Nationale de la recherche (France)• Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland• Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology• Swiss National Science Foundation• Arthritis Research Foundation, UK• Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK• British Heart Foundation• Cancer Research UK• Chief Scientist Office (Scottish Executive Health Department)• Department of Health (UK)• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK• JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), UK• Medical Research Council (MRC), UK• National Environmental Research Council (NERC), UK• Science & Technology Facilities Council, UK• Wellcome Trust, UK• National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

Proposed Funder mandates

• European Commission• European Research Advisory Board (EURAB)• European University Association (EUA)• National Knowledge Commission, India• Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), USA

Open Access – A Policy IssueOpen Access policies are: Welcomed by authorsComplied with by authorsCompatible with copyright and respect

authors’ moral rightsCompatible with patent registrationRespectful of academic and intellectual

freedomsAligned with the aims of most funding bodies

and institutionsEffective!

What Institutions Are DoingSelf-archiving:

– Set-up and maintain institutional repository. – Help faculty deposit their research papers, new & old, digitizing

if necessary. – Implement open-access policies

Open-access journals:– Help promote open access journals launched at their institution

become known externally. – Ensure scholars at their institution know how to find open

access journals and archives in their fields. – Support open access journal ‘institutional memberships’ (e.g.

BioMedCentral, PLoS)– Engage with politicians and funding bodies to raise the issue of

open accesshttp://www.createchange.org/

Open Access – Appealing to All the Major Stakeholders

• To the funders of researcher – both as a public service and as an increased return on their investment in research

• To the authors – as it gives wider dissemination and impact• To readers – as it gives them access to all primary literature,

making the most important ‘research tool’ more powerful• To editors and reviewers – as they feel their work is more

valued• To the libraries – as it allows them to meet the information

needs of their users• To the institutions – as it increases their presence and

prestige• To small and society publishers – as it gives them a survival

strategy and fits with their central remit

electronic Information for Librarieswww.eIFL.net

• Enabling access to knowledge through libraries in developing and transition countries

• 48 Member countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Kosova, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

eIFL.net programs1. 1+1= More and better. The benefits of library

consortia2. Advocating for affordable and fair access to

commercially produced scholarly resources 3. Advocacy for access to knowledge: copyright and

libraries 4. Open access publishing and the building of

institutional repositories of local content 5. Promoting free and open source software for

libraries Strengthening Intellectual Property rights6. Promoting a culture of cooperation: knowledge

and information sharing

• eIFL-OA seeks to enhance access to research, thereby accelerating innovation and economic development in the countries participating in the eIFL network

eIFL-OA Program • builds networks of Open Access repositories, Open

Access journals, Open Access education materials;• provides training and advice on Open Access policies

and practices;• empowers library professionals, scientists and

scholars, educators and students to become open access advocates.

eIFL Open Access Program

Some eg. implementation - Ukraine

• Since January 2007 Ukraine has a law - proposed mandate for open access to publicly funded research.

• It was widely supported by most of the Parliament members.

• And it is already the second parliamentary inquiry mandating the Cabinet of Ministers to take actions on creating favourable conditions for developing open access repositories in archives, libraries, museums, scientific and research institutions with open access condition to state funded research.

• Law of Ukraine On the principles of developing information society in Ukraine for 2007-20015 at www.rada.gov.ua

Some examples – South Africa (cont.)

• the Academy of Science (ASSAF) Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa (CSPiSA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has dedicated a substantial three-year budget to fund the implementation of ASSAF's recommendations for the development of scholarly publication in South Africa - a 'gold route' Open Access approach to journal publishing in South Africa.

Conclusion

• The open access movement seeks to develop connections between research and policy in developing and transitional countries. It has also partnered with like minded organisations in Western countries to promote Open Access and link open access to research.

Thank you!Questions?

mbambtb@unisa.ac.za