From: Colin Steele <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 01:59:18 +0000

An interesting short piece from Research Fortnight  Colin

Think differently on open access, UKRI told

Research Fortnight, 28 March 2018



Advocates of publishing reform are pushing UK Research

and Innovation to tighten up on journal spending.

Since 2013, the research councils have provided

a block grant to ensure that the research they fund is

freely accessible, either immediately or shortly after

publication. Much of the grant is spent on ‘hybrid’ journals,

which charge readers for subscriptions but also

accept article-processing charges (APCs) from authors

to make specific papers free to access.



“Very few people are looking at the UK and thinking

that what we’ve done is a good idea,” said Danny

Kingsley, deputy director, scholarly communication, at

the University of Cambridge Library. “Nobody else has

thrown millions of extra pounds into the system.”



UKRI is reviewing its policy on open access. Its head

Mark Walport said in February that the review would

ensure the UK’s approach was “financially sustainable”

and delivered “maximum impact for taxpayers”. The

Wellcome Trust is also reviewing its own policies.

Reformers sense an opportunity in these developments.

The UKRI review needs to start with a proper discussion of

its policy’s greater goal, Kingsley said. Open-access compliance

is seen as success, she said, “but that isn’t an end

in itself”. If the aim is to improve public engagement, that

needs to be measured, she added.



Block grants were intended to incentivise publishers

to flip to exclusively open-access models, but “all

that has happened is that publishers receive monies for

subscriptions and for APCs”, said Paul Ayris, pro viceprovost

for library services at University College London.

Ayris wants UKRI to introduce caps on the charges.



The average cost of APCs at UCL is £1,500 per article, he

said, and the cap should be no higher than that.

As part of UKRI’s review, Walport has said the agency

could consider preventing block grant spending on

any hybrid journals. Publishers favour other options,

arguing that disinvesting in hybrid journals would

restrict authors’ freedom to publish in the journals of

their choice.



Carrie Calder, vice-president for open research at publisher

Springer Nature, points to the Springer Compact, a

deal that offsets universities’ APCs against journal subscriptions.

Kingsley agreed funding for hybrid journals

should be predicated on such offsetting agreements.



---------------------------------------------

Colin Steele
Emeritus Fellow

ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

The Australian National University

Room 3.31, Beryl Rawson Building #13

Acton, ACT, 2601
Australia



P: + 61 2 6125 8983 <+61%202%206125%208983>

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