Open Access Publishing with arXiv Tommy Ohlsson

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Outline

•  Open Access (OA) •  arXiv •  SCOAP3 •  Useful references •  Some questions

Open Access (OA)

What is Open Access (OA)?

Definition (Wikipedia): Open access (OA) is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly research. It is most commonly applied to scholarly journal articles, but it is also increasingly being provided to theses, book chapters, and scholarly monographs.

OA or Subscription Journals

•  OA journals: An OA journal (or repository) allows readers to access papers without financial or legal barriers.

•  Subscription-based journal: A journal where the reader, institution or library pays a subscription fee to have access to the journal. Many subscription journals have no charge for authors to published in them.

Who Pays?

OA journal Subscription-based journal

Author (= writer) ✔ (✔) Reader ✔

Different Types of OA

The most common models are: •  Gold OA: A model under which a fee is paid per paper by the

authors, their institution, or the funding body to make their paper freely available to read and re-use.

•  Green OA: The self-archiving of a paper in a subject or institutional repository. It is generally the authors’ final peer-reviewed version (i.e. the accepted manuscript before it is prepared for publication), not the published version. The journal may impose some restrictions. No contribution is made to the costs of publication. The model is financed by subscription fees of the journal.

•  Hybrid OA: This is a model in which “subscription-based” journals allow authors to make individual papers OA on payment of a fee.

arXiv

arXiv – An Online Self-Archiving Repository

arXiv (pronounced "archive”, as if the "X" were the Greek letter Chi, χ) is an archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics, and quantitative finance which can be accessed freely online. In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archived on arXiv. Created by Paul Ginsparg, started in 1991, maintained and operated by Cornell University Library (with guidance from SAB and MAB), and contains close to 1,100,000 e-prints.

arxiv.org – The Website

Peer Review and OA @ arXiv

Peer review: Although arXiv is not peer reviewed, a collection of moderators for each subject area review the submissions and may recategorize any that are deemed off-topic. The lists of moderators for many sections of arXiv are publicly available. Endorsement: An "endorsement" system was introduced in January 2004 as part of an effort to ensure content that is relevant and of interest to current research in the specified disciplines. Submission formats: e-prints can be submitted in several different formats, including LaTeX and PDF. Listings of newly submitted articles in areas of interest are available via the website and by subscription to automatic email alerts (every weekday). Access: No restrictions! It is free for both authors and readers!

arXiv Submission Rate Development

arXiv Monthly Submission Rates

arXiv Monthly Download Rates

paperscape.org – A Map of arXiv’s Papers

arXiv Member Institutions 2015 (in Sweden)

•  Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (tier 3) •  KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (tier 2) •  Uppsala University, Uppsala (tier 3) Institutional usage (2014): •  Uppsala University (rank 96) •  Stockholm University (rank 105) •  Chalmers (rank 112) •  KTH (rank 146) Usage from Sweden (2014): 2.0 % of arXiv usage in total Funding from Sweden: 1.6 % of arXiv funding from member institutions I was elected for 6 years (2013-2018) to serve on arXiv’s Member Advisory Board as one of eight voting members from the contributing institutions.

The Green OA arXiv Model

•  The manuscript is ready (according to the authors). •  The manuscript is sent to arXiv (Version 1, preprint). •  Wait for relevant comments from the scientific community

(about one week). •  Submit the manuscript to an international scientific journal,

i.e., a usual journal with peer review. •  In the case of acceptance of the manuscript (quality stamp),

proofs of the paper will arrive from the journal. If there are any changes in the proofs, then an update of Version 1 to Version 2 (postprint), which is contentwise identical to the published version of the paper, is sent to arXiv.

•  The paper is published by the journal. •  Eventually, arXiv will attach the journal reference to the paper.

The model works because of institutional subscriptions to journals.

T. Ohlsson, Nature 489, 367 (2012).

Other Preprint Repositories

•  bioRχiv [biorxiv.org] (biology)

•  PeerJ PrePrints [peerj.com/preprints/] (biology, computer science)

•  Sciencepaper Online [www.paper.edu.cn] (any fields)

SCOAP3

SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for OA Publishing in Particle Physics) is a global consortium of organizations in high energy physics, physics research centers and leading international libraries. Its goal is to convert essential journals in particle physics that are presently financed by subscriptions into OA journals with the support of the publishers. SCOAP3 journals: Physics Letters B, Nuclear Physics B, Advances in High Energy Physics, Chinese Physics C, JCAP, New Journal of Physics, Acta Physica Polonica B, Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, European Physical Journal C, JHEP Partner in Sweden: National Library of Sweden (KB)

Started January 1, 2014 2014, 2015, 2016

Useful References

•  A Short Guide to Publishing Open Access, Elsevier. •  Introductory Guide for Authors, IoP Publishing. •  Tommy Ohlsson, Vad menas med Open Access?,

Fysikaktuellt nr. 3, september 2013, s. 8–9. [in Swedish] •  Tommy Ohlsson, Preprint servers: follow arXiv’s lead,

Nature 489, 367 (2012).

Some Open ”Provocative” Questions

•  Is arXiv good for the scientific community? •  Is the Green OA arXiv Model a good way of publishing? •  Can scientists from other fields that today do not use arXiv

start to use arXiv in the future? •  Who should pay for the Green OA arXiv Model? •  Are initiatives like SCOAP3 good?

BACKUP SLIDES

History of OA

•  Free availability on the public internet

•  Permitting users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles

•  Crawl them for indexing

•  Licenses to allow use and re-use without financial, legal, or technical barriers

•  Accessible online without cost to readers, but not costless to produce. So, funding needed by authors, institutions, funders or others

Gold OA

Gold OA •  After acceptance, research is made

immediately, permanently OA •  Readers can copy and reuse the content as

defined by user licenses •  Costs are covered by a OA publication fee •  Some funding bodies and institutions will

reimburse authors for such fees

Benefits of Gold OA •  Immediate open access •  You can choose your user license •  Authors retain copyright •  Share the final published article

OA Publishing Fees

Relate to Gold OA publishing only

Vary among journals (e.g. in the price range between 500–5,000 USD per article)

Tend to be journal specific

Authors are not expected to pay funding body or institution

Green OA

Green OA •  After publication and acceptance in a subscription

journal author publish in a journal •  The article is immediately available to subscribers •  After a delayed period of time (an embargo),

authors can post their manuscript to an institutional repository for public use

•  Applies to the accepted author manuscript and preprint versions

•  Cost of publication are covered and dependent on the subscription model