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Open Access – Support for Research?Jyrki Hakapää Research seminar at Aleksanteri Institute

Graduate School20 Sept 2013

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• The Internet lets us share perfect copies of our work with a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. We take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity when we make our work “open access”: digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access is made possible by the Internet and copyright-holder consent […] for 350 years, scholars have written peer-reviewed journal articles for impact, not for money, and are free to consent to open access without losing revenue.

– Peter Suber: Open Access. MIT Press, 2012. http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262517638_Open_Access_PDF_Version.pdf

What is Open Access?

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E. Archambault et al. Proportion of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Papers at the European and World Levels 2004 – 2011. Science-Metrix, 2013, 13, http://www.science-metrix.com/pdf/SM_EC_OA_Availability_2004-2011.pdf.

- A study funded by the European Commission. Other studies show smaller percentages for open access publications, nevertheless their share has been rising to at least 20 % level by 2010.

”Tipping Point” of Open Access

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• Open access is probably the most discussed topic in the current landscape of publishing, but it is only one issue in the development of communication circuit of academic publishing.

• During last decades, the traditional model of publishing, distributing and using or reading scientific publications have faced changes and challenges in many ways.

• What comes to distribution, Internet and digitalization offer solutions to three difficult challenges:

1) rising costs of academic publishing

2) limited effort or funding for efficient distribution and/or library collections

3) limited possibilities to publish one’s research results

Simple answer: upload your work to Internet and give open access to everybody.

Structural Changes of Academic Publishing

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• In reality, choices for scientific publishing are more rigid, and the whole communication circuit of the academic publishing needs to be taken care of.

• All scholars benefit of support to publish and distribute their publications, and they need curation of collections and quality control to find useful information and publications.

• Researchers ready to publish their work need:

1) editors and reviewers = scientific journals

2) librarians and/or curators = digital collections and databases

Control and Support

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By peer-review and reputation, scientific journals offer assurance of quality and recognition to scholars. Many journals and publishers have understood the benefits of open access, but solutions are varied:

• Green Open Access – Archiving the final ”accepted manuscript” in a sustainable subject or institutional repository, usually with an embargo.

• Gold Open Access – Direct Publication in an Open Access medium by applying creative commons license, article processing charges most likely needed.

• Hybrid Open Access – Payment for Open Access for single articles in subscription journals

Some publishers and journals do not support open access. However, because of their reputation they might be intriguing for scholars.

Open Access Publishing Models

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• Institutional repositories

- At University of Helsinki, researchers are required to self-archive their research articles in the University’s open repository

- Academy of Finland urges scholars funded by the Academy to archive their publications at institutional repositories

• Subject repositories

- International repositories, such as arXiv, PubMed

- Recent discussions on Open Library of Humanities https://www.openlibhums.org/

• National repositories: Brazil, plans in Sweden (esp. monographs)

• Social media: academia.edu, ResearchGate, blogs

Repositories

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• If using green open access, what version of your article you can archive?

- Usually a ”pre-print” version.

- Who archives the publication and when?

• Who owns the different versions of the article? Who can re-use it and for what purposes?

- Creative commons – a non-profit organization that offer copyright licences http://creativecommons.org/

- CC-BY – the article can be re-used, but need of proper citing

• Research costs: APCs may vary from 0 – 6000 euros / an article, average ca. 900 euros. Many research funders cover these costs, if they are found reasonable.

Version Control – Intellectual Property Rights – Costs

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• Science-Metrix study (2013) states:

”all the [research] fields derive an open access citation advantage. … the citation advantage is derived almost exclusively from the green and hybrid portion”

• Other studies show advantage on gold Open Access, too.

• Many gold open access journals are young and small – authors prefer to read and cite established journals.

• This might explain why it is better to ask established and traditional journals support open access than to create totally new open access journals.

• However, new disciplines and transdisciplinary studies need new platforms to publish their work.

Is It Worth of Anything?

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• Recent emphasis to move open access to monographs is especially important for humanities and social sciences.

• The challenge to choose between openness and prestige, as well as openness and financial benefits, are however more severe.

• Efforts to support Open Access monographs are emerging:

- E-Thesis [http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/en] – Finnish universities’ service to publish open access dissertations and theses

- OpenEdition Books [http://books.openedition.org/?lang=en] – a service for publishers to create OA monographs.

• Open Access Monographs in Social Sciences and Humanities conference (July 2013, British Library), https://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/JISC-Collections-events/oabooksconf/OAbooksprogramme/

How About Monographs?

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• What is the role of peer-review in the future?

- Public Library of Science [http://www.plos.org/] publishes all texts that are scientifically sound on the particular research field.

- arXiv [http://arxiv.org/] asks users to endorse the submitted pre-prints. Reviewers are not anonymous.

- Media Commons press [http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/] has arranged a platform for peer-to-peer review process for monograph manuscripts.

• Data mining options – new methods for research.

• New publishing formats of research results on digital platforms.

Is It Only About Availability?

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• University of Helsinki open access homepage:

http://www.helsinki.fi/openaccess/oa-arkistointi/english/index.html

• University of Helsinki digital repository services:

http://www.helsinki.fi/library/get-help/university-s-publications/

• University of Jyväskylä open access homepage:

https://www.jyu.fi/tutkimus/rinnakkaisjulkaiseminen/en/open-access

• FinnOA – Suomen Open Access työryhmä

http://www.finnoa.fi/

• Open Knowledge Foundation Finland – Open Science Working Group

http://fi.okfn.org/wg/openscience/

More information – domestic sites

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• Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ http://www.doaj.org/

• Directory of Open Access Books DOAB http://www.doabooks.org/

• Database on publishing copyright policies and self-archiving SHERPA/Romeo http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php?la=en&fIDnum=all&mode=advanced

• ScienceEurope position statement on Open Access http://www.scienceeurope.org/uploads/Public%20documents%20and%20speeches/SE_OA_Pos_Statement.pdf

• European Commission Horizon 2020 principle on Open Access• http

://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/background-paper-open-access-october-2012_en.pdf

More information – international sites