What is Open Access?

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Open Access is the free and unrestricted online access to publications. In general anyone should be able to freely read, search and re-use (subject to proper attribution) any publications made available as Open Access on publisher websites and on repositories. Many funders of research require publications arising from that research to be made Open Access.

Last month, the University hosted a workshop to help explain the developments in Open Access to staff. Internal and external speakers representing author, publisher and operational perspectives on Open Access were invited to talk.

View presentations from the workshop >>>

The University's Open Access Steering Group, chaired by Professor George Marston (Dean of Science), has developed an Open Access policy and provides support and advice regarding the RCUK mandate and APCs.

Speakers at the workshop covered the following points:

The Royal Society of Chemistry and Taylor & Francis discussed the impact of Open Access on their business model and how they have adapted to help researchers comply with funding body mandates. There was a recognition that the transition period will be significant and so publishers are working closely with libraries and authors to try to resolve issues
Dr John Creighton from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences discussed his role as editor of the Society of Antiquaries, highlighting how a small learned society was using Open Access to its advantage by using online publication to save costs and increase visibility of its monographs
Dr Simon Sherratt from the School of Systems Engineering discussed the technical society IEEE, where journal subscriptions fund the society and enable value-added services such as conferences. There are various different economic models of Open Access publishing, for example the society has recently introduced a new Open Access mega journal spanning all IEEE fields of interest
Paul Johnson from the University Library discussed the serials crisis as one of the main drivers for Open Access. It is expected that there will be a shift away from subscriptions towards article processing charges (APCs) so that institutions do not have to pay twice (‘double-dipping'). Open Access monograph publishing is complex area which still requires a lot more development
Alison Sutton from the University's Institutional Repository (CentAUR) demonstrated that an established worldwide infrastructure of repositories exists providing alternative models of Open Access. CentAUR provides researchers with a vehicle to comply with Open Access and this is illustrated by high download statistics
Emily Goodhand, the University's Copyright & Compliance Officer, gave a brief overview of copyright and licensing in relation to Open Access, explaining Creative Commons licences and publishing contracts
Professor Abby Ghobadian from the Henley Business School summarised the benefits and challenges of Open Access based on the UK Government's view expressed in the Finch Report. The UK's policy is at variance with that of other countries, and given that the Internet has significantly changed the landscape of publishing, Open Access may have some unintended consequences.