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.
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--------------- Colin Steele
Emeritus FellowANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Room 3.31, Beryl Rawson Building #13
Acton, ACT, 2601
Australia