Open Access to (your) research Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, original, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open Access removes price barriers (subscriptions, licensing fees, pay per view fees) and permission barriers for scholarly use (most copyright and licensing restrictions) and thus stands for free availability and unrestricted use of scholarly content. Open Access refers to DATA as well. Peter Suber, A very brief introduction to Open Access http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm Two main routes to Open Access Open Access Repositories • Freely available • Institutional Repositories / Subject Repositories • Worldwide network • Preservation and management information • Funders policies • Extra services • Copyright? In Sherpa Romeo authors find if publishers allow self-archiving Content: • Articles (pre-print / post-print/official published version) • Conference proceedings • Reports • Books • Book chapters • Research data • Etc. Freely available for all; the reader does not pay to get access Open Access Publishing (journals, books) Peer Reviewed Then who pays? Copyright stays with the author Article Processing Charges (APC) - Funding agencies provide money to the author or establish agreements with publisher - Via Open Access funds - Via institutional membership - APC waved by publisher Is copyright such an easy issue? Things to know about Copyright • As the creator of a work you are automatically the Copyright owner (unless otherwise agreed with your employer) • In the ideal Open Access Situation you don't give away your Copyright, but rather license your publisher to publish and distribute your work • Whereas copyright was originally a tool to encourage creativity and learning, it is now the basis for business (Statute of Anne, 1709) o In other words, in our times toll publishers obtain copyright from authors and then profit by asking users to pay for access to publications Reality check: o o many authors sign away their copyright to the publisher many authors are not aware about copyright issues and how this affects the dissemination of research Best practice for Open Access: Creative Commons license CC-BY Means others can share your work (copy, distribute and transmit) and remix (adapt) as long as they credit you for the original creation Other Creative Commons Licenses CC-BY-SA CC-BY-ND CC-BY-NC CC-BY-NC-SA CC-BY-NC-ND (most restrictive) http://creativecommons.org/ How Open Access benefits your work and career Distribution and usage • Immediate access to your research output for everyone upon official publication; • More visibility and usage, also from non-specialist audiences; • Immediate impact of your work; • Intensification of research through fast dissemination and use of research; • Possibly a citation advantage as well. Plus: • Monitoring of your research output; • Preservation of your research output by your library; • Keep your rights instead of signing them away. Open Access also benefits Universities (and their libraries) / funders Increased visibility & increase of Return on Investment Promotion possibilities of the work carried out by staff Long term preservation of scholarly content Increase efficiency in monitoring and managing research Decrease costs in journal subscriptions Basis to develop added-value services essential for Open Scholarship Society at large (i.e. citizens and small and medium enterprises) Immediate and toll-free access to research paid for by public funds Increase of Return on Investment Enhance interest and participation in research (citizen science) Contribution to the development of conditions that foster social and financial prosperity and development Publishers • Optimal distribution service; widest audience • Opportunity to work with new publishing models and participate in Open Scholarship / Open Science • Less overhead in managing access Enterprises • Immediate access to research content promote enterprise-based research • Development of innovative products and services • Enhance contact with the research community Summary: Adapted from: John Houghton, Colin Steele and Peter Sheehan, Report to the Department of Education, Science and Training “Research Communication Costs in Australia: Emerging Opportunities and Benefits” [Online] Available at: http://www. dest . gov .au/NR/ rdonlyres /0ACB271F-EA7D-4FAF-B3F7-0381F441B175/13935/DEST_Research_Communications_Cost_Report_Sept2006. pdf Open Access is a strong global movement. (European) policy developments illustrate: - Lisbon Treaty, Article 179 ‘a European Research Area in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely...' as an objective of the Union - European Research Counsil: Open Access Guidelines (2008) - European Commission: FP7 Open Access Pilot - European Commission: Will FP8 have an Open Access Mandate? National Funding agencies and other (private) research funders are embedding Open Access Policies Myths and truths about OA Myth 1: Open Access journals do not practice strict peerreview process; they are of low(er) quality. Truth 1: Peer-review practices are not related to access models of a journal but to editorial policies. Myth 2: There are no Open Access journals in my field of expertise Truth 2: - Most journals offer OA possibilities, even if they are not purely OA. As author you have a lot to say and you can pay an additional fee for OA. - Check out the DOAJ for available high quality Open Access Journals Myth 3 Self-archiving (depositing in the Institutional Repository) takes too much of my time Truth 3 Self- archiving takes some time but is still a simple process. Check if you can use the Research Information System for filling out the data. Most libraries offer excellent assistance and help to make it as easy as possible for you. Myth 4 Open Access aims at punishing commercial publishers (my publishers) Truth 4: Open Access is respectful to all; it facilitates the access to and dissemination of research and complements, but does not replace publishing activities. Myth 5 There is no funding for publishing in Open Access Journals Truth 5 Check out the policies of your funding organization; many funders have included OA clauses and cover OA related costs; Ask your librarian for funding options! Why is Open Access Beneficial per subject field: Zooming in your academic discipline