Scholarly Publishing and Open Access

Editor's Notes

• #2: Julia Gross Presentation at FoPs seminar. August 2012.Abstract:In recent months there have been debates about the future of scholarly publishing accompanied by increasing calls for a greater emphasis on open access. In Australia the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has come out strongly in support of open access. Whatis this all about and how can researchers take advantage of open access?  This FoPs session will cover: What is open access?Open access publishing models Increasing research impact by publishing in open access peer-reviewed publicationsCopyright and open accessHow can ECU’s open access Research Online repository help researchers?New open access requirements for NHMRC fundingInternational developments UK Finch report…………………………………There is lots of debate in this areaThis session is about presenting the debateWhat impact does it have on researchers……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
• #3: My presentation will cover 6 main areas of open access:Scholarly publishing crisisOpen access and OA publishing models Open access and research impact, how you can Increase your research impact by publishing in open access peer-reviewed publicationsCopyright and open accessHow can ECU’s open access Research Online repository help researchers?New open access requirements for NHMRC funding – a mandate
• #4: I will start by presenting “the problem” which is commonly referred to as the “scholarly communication crisis”What is this scholarly communication crisis?Since the mid 1990s digital publications have increased dramatically. Despite the explosion of digital publication worldwideoften quality scholarly literature is inaccessible to global researchers and is behind a paywall.Why is this so?Publishers (particularly in the areas of Science, Technology and Medicine) are in control and the current publishing model is skewed in their favour. While academic authors give away their intellectual property, academic publishers reap large profits. Libraries are caught in the middle, faced with rapidly rising subscription costs and budget pressures. This unique publishing model appears to be unsustainable, resulting in what has become known as the “scholarly communication crisis”This presentation will outline the nature of the crisis and look into the promise of new models that would provide free and open access to research outputs
• #5: Is a battle going on. It helps to start by looking at the key playersWho are the key players?What does this mean for researchers?Thekey stakeholders in scholarly communication are publishers, authors, libraries and scholars….can also add research funding bodies to that list I will present now the positions of each of the key players
• #6: Who are these publishers?STM publishing is global business dominated by three main players: Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwells.Accounts for 42% of STM journalsBut there are other major publishers who operate under the same modelThe bottom line is thatResearch is publically fundedAuthors are not paidPublishers get content for freeThere is of course another side to the argument:Publishers’ side of the argumentProvide outlet for researchMediate between authors and librariesManage publication processManage peer review processEnsure qualityMarket and distribute the product
• #7: Authors, who are researchers and academic staff, mostly, are interested in:Creating new knowledgeimpact of their Research and whether it can reach a wide audienceCitations and impact factors, who is citing them and wherePeer review and quality controlCareer, academic promotion, tenureVested interest in the status quo, the current system is well entrenchedAuthor attitudes towards open access publishing done byInTech Open Access Publisher. Survey 2011 75% authors rated open access as important
• #8: Prior to the late 1990s journals used to be published in print form. When e-journals started appearing they mostly came as bundles from a publisher and libraries were required to sign a licence for access to a bundle of journals, some of which they used to have in print and some they did not. Libraries paid a subscription fee and then set up access by IP range to ensure only our students/staff could access.Since then costs are increasingJournal price increasesMany libraries have cancelled journalsAt ECU the Percentage spent on journals now above 80%Means less money for booksCosts increasing above inflation….33% in 5 years, 2007-2011Some journals in the sciences now cost around $5,000, $10,000 and even $20,000 per yearLibraries are trying to confront the problemEven large, high prestige universities like Harvard are complaining about rising serials costs
• #9: Scholars need to be able to access the current literature in their fieldOnly staff/students of institution get accessThey loose out, particularly those in poorer institutions and in the developing world. Journals charge a toll for accessFor example at ECU: an international student collaborates with ECU researcher and together they publish article, BUT cannot read the results of research on returning home
• #10: Do these access barriers need to exist? Is there another way forward?The worldwide Open Access movement aims to shift the academic publishing paradigm from closed access to open access.
• #12: Why is Open Access important and what is its history?Movement towards Open access Moral argument that: Open access to publicly funded research should be mandatoryHistory: Budapest Open Access Initiative was an agreement to find another way forward, signed in 2002The BOAI challenged the status quo by sayingOLD WAY Taxpayers pay for (1) research funding (2) salaries of academics to do research and to do peer review (3) libraries to purchase the serials NEW WAY goal that everyone in the world to share knowledge freely and openly.Now, more pressing to have open access because Funders are mandating OA
• #13: Under the so-called Green Roadauthors can self archive on a website, or in an institutional repository, or in a discipline repositoryOpen access institutional repository contains published research outputs, among other thingsUnder the Gold Road the author publishes directly in an OA journalGold OA journal publishing has seen rapid growth mainly journals, but extending also to book chaptersThere are many models of OA journals, with some charging authors an open access publication fee. Many are peer reviewed
• #14: I will focus now on e-repositories, or institutional repositories repositories can be freely accessed by scholarsThey are available worldwide They ensure that articles have digital preservation for the longterm, a type of archiveChallenges the closed publishing modelFaster accessCitation benefits
• #15: Advantage of repositories are that theyPromote and showcase researchPreserve research onlineStore and organiseresearchOptimise a Google searchIncludedin Google ScholarEnhance scholarly communication
• #16: ECU’s institutional repository us known as Research Online at ECUhttp://ro.ecu.edu.au/
• #17: Repositories are very flexible:Published works book chapters, conference papers the copy received is mostly peer reviewed post printjournal articles, working papersDigital formatsmedia, music, imagesDissertations at ECU all dissertations now being published this wayConference and journal publishing
• #18: • Commercial publishers usually ask you to sign over copyrightEach publisher has different rules on repository copiesMostly post-print versionPost-print is version accepted for publication, after peer review changesECU Library repository staff can advise researchers 
• #19: Directory of OA Journals http://www.doaj.org/ see handout7,000 OA journals, consider publishing in one of these.Many are peer reviewedAuthor may need to pay a fee to publishExample: Public Library of Science (PLoS)PLoScharges authors anywhere from $1,350 to $2,900 PLOS publishes seven peer-reviewed open-access journals
• #21: Dynamic area, fast changingResearch Works Act December 2011 “which would have rolled back the Public Access Policy ( iePubMed Central submission within 12 months) introduced by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2005, and forbidden other federal agencies from introducing similar policies”. http://poynder.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Research%20Works%20Act Who was behind Research Works Act ? US Lobbying by major academic publishing housesResearchers mounted a petition to boycott ElsevierU.S. Federal Research Public Access Act 2012 does the oppositeIn August 2011 George Monbiot in online version of The Guardian (UK newspaper)TitledThe Lairds of Learning the article took the line, that “academic publishers make <Rupert> Murdoch look like a socialist”The article claimed that the publishers are privateers?This article certainly captured the attention of those in the Open Access movement, including many librarians, as it moved the decade-long debate about the scholarly communication crisis, into the mainstream media. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialistIn the U.K. Finch Report support Gold OA
• #22: Think before you give away your copyrightFind out the OA journals in your field Greater Access = Greater ImpactIf you report your publication information to ECU’s RAS, it will come thru to Research Online (eventually)Be aware of funder requirements re OAThe Right to Research Coalition (US) has announced a new student guide to publishing openly, entitled “Optimize Your Publishing, Maximize Your Impact.”  This new resource presents students with the ways in which they can make their research openly available for the widest possible readership and lays out the benefits of doing so. The guide is freely available on Open Access here at: http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/r2rc-launches-new-open-publishing-guide-for-studen.shtml
• #23: That brings to a conclusion my brief journey thru the scholarly communication crisis and open accessThanks for your attentionAre there any questions? Discussion?