Getting the Rights Right
- or, When Policies Collide!
Bill Hubbard
Director, Centre for Research Communications
University of Nottingham
UKSG Webinar
19th May 2015
Overview
• Open Access
• The policy environment
• Getting a clear perspective on policies
• Dealing with policy detail and clashes
• A strategic institutional response
• Strategy and tactics for getting action
Open Access
• Budapest Declaration
– “... the peer-reviewed journal literature and
completely free and unrestricted access to it
by all ...”
• Implications . . .
– CC-BY to CC-BY-NC-ND
– What re-use? Commercial? Cure for cancer?
– Text-mining - data-mining?
– Data?
What policies exist?
• Publisher policies
• Institutional policies
• Funder policies
• REF policies
– REF is principle mechanism for determining
research funding
• Government policy
– Finch Committee
Why have policies? - Open Access
• Without policies in favour, Open Access
adoption hovered at ~15%
• Overwhelming majority of researchers in
favour of OA concept
• Uptake throttled by set working habits,
esteem indicators, reward mechanisms
• Cultural change requires strong incentives
– Money, esteem
Why have policies?
• For control
• To support paths for development
• Understanding background and motivation
can be key for an effective response
• For the explicit motivations, ask the policy
bodies themselves: the following is my
own interpretation . . .
Why have policies? - Publishers
• Driven by perception of commercial need
• Faced with uncertainty, human reaction is
to freeze the status quo
• Controls environment while a sustainable
path is worked out
– depending on view, controls might read
restricts; sustainable might read profitable
• “Permissions” or “Restrictions”
Why have policies? - Government
• Strategic steer, given trends in access to
information, transparency
• Improved value and returns for public
investment
• Greater exposure of UK research leading
to investment
• Improved research environment
Why have policies? - REF
• Following lead from Government in
shaping future of research
communications
• Reducing administrative overhead in REF
– although it might not seem like it right now!
• Improves records and clarity in national
research picture
• Alignment with RCUK and others
Why have policies? - Funders
• Improved return on public investment
• More transparent use of public money
• Improved research environment where
more research is shared more widely and
more quickly
• Professional and ethical drivers
Why have policies? - Institutions
• Positions institution in line with information
trends on openness and re-use
• Greater exposure for institutional research
• Greater engagement with research users
and investors
• Improved admin, record keeping and
picture of institutional research
• Aligns with REF and Funder policies
What drives compliance?
• Professional ethics
• Social morality
• Fear of consequences
– personal
– institutional
• Can you prioritise by examining
compliance drivers for each policy - what
are the consequences?
Dealing with policies
• What should be tackled first?
• Achieving recognition of the need for
compliance in-house
• Efficient support structures and processes
• Who deals with compliance?
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher
Institutional Repository
Funding
RCUK
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher
Institutional Repository
Funding
Mandate
RCUK
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Funding
Mandate
RCUK
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Funding
Mandate
RCUK
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Funding
Mandate
RCUK
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher’s view . . .
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
Researcher’s view . . .
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
REF
and soon, with added research data?!
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
Institutional OA Fund
Researcher
Other Funder
Institution
Publisher with OA Option
Open AccessPublisher
Central/subjectRepository
Institutional Repository
?
?
Mandate
RCUK
Funding
Mandate
Institutional Database
Is there a key?
• Publishers need author compliance to
publish
• Publishers need institutional compliance or
could take legal action
• Institutions need compliance or, ummm ...
• RCUK wants ~ 60% compliance, rising
• REF needs 100% compliance in 101/2
months
Priorities and Precedence
• We tend to see the publisher policy as
being the source for rights in an article -
the thing that defines what else can be
complied with
– exemptions (REF)
– levels of compliance (RCUK)
– “where possible” get-outs (institutions)
• Why? This is back to front!
Is there a key? #2
• Publisher policies should respond to the
research agenda and not act in opposition!
• First decide what the institution needs to
comply with, within the research cycle
• Respond to the public investment you
have been entrusted with
• Then see if publisher policies comply with
your requirements
Is there a key? #3
• Deal with REF
• Deal with RCUK and others
– Ok for REF, ok for most funders (some
specific deposit venues and embargoes)
– lower levels of compliance required in 2016
• Deal with institutional policies
Is there a key? #4
• Does not take away publisher restrictions,
but puts them in context
• Now time to address publication choice
– previous advocacy avoided this
• HEFCE wants to see an institutional
process to inform academics of publication
choices with exemptions by exception
– not business as usual + exemptions
Open Access and the REF
To be eligible -
• Deposited at the point of acceptance
• Metadata immediately available
• Full-text available after 12 or 24 months
• Institutional process to handle exemptions
• Applies from April 2016
• In-house systems, processes, workflows:
ready in 101/2 months!
Institutional strategy
• Prepare for an OA future
• Comply with REF, RCUK and other funders
• Address academic issues of choice of
publication by opening debate
• Examine place of journal brands in rewards
• Ensure institutional policies in place and
reflect policies of REF and Funders
• Ensure support structures in place
Internal strategy for change
• Use the REF to gain traction for change
• Engage senior levels of management in
seeing the need for compliance
• Engage senior academics in asking for
support with REF process
• Use the REF coordinators to push for
coordination, who know what it is like
Summary
• Build institutional response around
prioritised policy compliance
• Open Access is the rule, with exceptions
• All institutional stakeholders on top of OA
– as an idea; as a process; as a work-flow; as
requirements; as developing policies
• Researchers need to know what to do -
– clear, concise, contextualised
There are issues - BUT !
• Open Access is a real benefit for
researchers, the research process,
institutions, funders, tax-payers, the public
and for our culture and our future
• Support and belief from all of the
stakeholders in the research process
• All of the issues can be resolved
Bill Hubbard
Director, Centre for Research Communications
University of Nottingham
sherpa.ac.uk/romeo
sherpa.ac.uk/juliet
sherpa.ac.uk/fact
sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar