The Finch Report Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research...
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Transcript of The Finch Report Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research...
The Finch ReportAccessibility, sustainability,
excellence: how to expand access to research publications
Michael JubbDirector, RIN
Secretary, Finch Group
Bloomsbury Conference, UCL, 28 June 2012
The Finch Group
independent Working Group chaired by Dame Janet Finch
representatives of universities, researchers, funders, publishers, learned societies, libraries
different groups with different interests………….. Remit:
how to expand access to peer-reviewed publications arising from research (focus on journals)
more publications accessible to more people a sustainable model, and a programme of action
Report published 19 June
Current environment: economic factors
global increase in research expenditure 4% increase in nos. of research papers each
year rise of Asian and Latin American research
China responsible for 17% of all articles 2010 growth of international collaboration financial pressures on libraries
ARL library budgets 3.5% of university expenditure in 1980s, <2.0% now
Current environment: technology
digital revolution in journal publishing
PDFs still dominant, but increasing moves towards ‘semantic publishing’
text mining? data deluge, open data
links between publications and underlying/related data
Current environment: social, political, behavioural
openness and transparency expectations that content will be freely
available disintermediation
or, disruption of established roles information abundance and the economy
of attention growth of social media, even in the
research space (?)
Issues and opportunities
online environment internet is changing everything: huge growth in access, but
full benefits not yet realised barriers to access increasingly unacceptable in an online
world access for HE and research sectors
generally good, but patchy in less-well-endowed HEIs access for society at large
generally poor principle that results of publicly-funded research
should be freely accessible in the public domain effective publication and dissemination essential for
realising that principle
Issues and opportunities: 2
benefits of wider access enhanced transparency, public engagement closer linkages between research and innovation improved efficiency in research process increased returns on public investment: economic
growth, public services momentum behind open access
how to promote and accelerate that in a managed way, maximising the benefits and minimising the risks
Issues and opportunities:3
international scope UK authors listed on 6% of global total of papers (c220k) 46% of UK-authored papers also have authors from
overseas quality
world-leading status and performance of UK research community
closely associated with high-quality channels through which they publish their research
costs transition means additional costs sustainability – for publishers and funders – of key
features of research communications system
Where are we now? subscription-based journals (c 23k)
still predominant model published by a wide range of publishers: commercial,
not for profit, learned societies licences purchased on behalf of readers
big deals restrictions on use and re-use to protect revenues
open access journals (6.7k?) <10% of articles funding via APCs, but many journals charge nothing (3
at OU) minimal restrictions on use and re-use hybrid model
Where are we now? institutional repositories
> 1750 worldwide, >150 in UK UCL Discovery the largest repository in the UK: 225k
items <3k full text journal articles
access restricted submitted or accepted ms; embargo period; restrictions on
use and re-use subject repositories
ArXiv, PMC and UKPMC, SSRN, RePEc……….. patchy coverage relationships with publishers
What do we want?
researchers speedy and effective publication and dissemination; high impact and credit;
easy accessibility and use universities
maximise research performance and income; access; reduce costs funders
maximum impact from high-quality research; accessibility; reduce costs libraries
maximise no. of journals/articles, at lowest possible cost; develop their roles in a changing information environment
publishers sustain and develop services for effective publication and dissemination of
high-quality research; secure revenues to enable them to do so learned societies
sustain support for publishing; sustain revenues to support their other activities
Two questions
Is the current system acceptable or sustainable?
Would a global open access regime be preferable?
Success criteria
Accessibility more UK-authored publications freely accessible anywhere in
the world (including UK) more non-UK publications freely accessible to UK researchers more non-UK publications freely accessible to anyone in UK
Research and services sustain high-quality research and the services that underpin it high-quality services to readers and users
Financial financial sustainability for publishing and for learned societies costs/affordability for research funders costs/affordability for universities and research institutes
Mechanisms?
Open access journals improved access to UK-authored publications in UK and rest of world, with minimal
restrictions no impact on access to non-UK publications need to remove funding barriers (cf Wellcome) need for publishers to provide more open access options
Licensing extensions only way to expand access to non-UK publications in short term national licences? licences for whole HE sector and NHS (cf SHEDL) licensing for other sectors (SMEs, Government, voluntary organisations….)
Repositories potential for expanded access to UK publications, but with restrictions no impact on access to non-UK publications benefits for universities benefits also in access to grey literature, theses, data (?) but by themselves, not a satisfactory or sustainable mechanism risks to underlying publishing model
Conclusions
no mechanism on its own meets all the success criteria
hence the need for a mixed model for the short-medium term
Recommendations: 1
clear policy direction towards support of publishing in OA and hybrid journals
more effective and flexible arrangements to meet costs of APCs
minimise restrictions on use and re-use, especially for non-commercial purposes
rationalise and extend licences for HE and NHS
pursue proposal for walk-in access via public libraries
Recommendations: 2
work with representative bodies in key sectors to examine feasibility of consortial licences
future big deal negotiations should take explicit account of revenues provided as APCs
further experimentation on open access monographs
further development of repository infrastructure to improve interoperability
caution in limiting length of embargo periods
Costs
transition means additional costs: estimate £50-60m (cf RC and FC expenditure on research of £5.5bn)
£38m on OA publishing £10m on extended licences £3-5m on repositories
very difficult to calculate pace of change, especially the extent to which the UK is ahead of the rest of the world average level of APCs publications with international authors stickiness in reducing subscription expenditure as expenditure on APCs rises
importance of working at international level transparency from publishers on subscription and APC revenues market competition
key advantage of gold OA is greater transparency on price decisions by researchers and universities on price as well as quality/standing of journals
What will change? a balanced programme more people have access to more content,
immediately upon publication, free at the point of use accelerated progress to open access in UK and rest of
world better transparency and accountability better engagement with research closer linkages between research and innovation improved efficiency in research process
a research communications environment that promotes innovation from new entrants as well as established players
will work only if the key players continue to work together
Thank you
Michael Jubbwww.researchinfonet.org