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