Open Access: Threats and Promises of
Scholarly Communication
Derek Whitehead
April 2009
Outline
1) Introduction – Swinburne, Australia
2) Open access – many kinds
3) Open access and libraries
4) Repositories - what they are
5) Repositories and open access
6) What else can a repository do?
7) Making repositories work
2
1 Swinburne
> Dual sector university – in Australia
13,000 higher education students
(EFTSU), 13,000 TAFE (technical
and further education) (FTE)
> Rapid growth based on international
students
> Five campuses in Melbourne, one in
Malaysia
> Technological university –
engineering, Information and
communications technology, design,
life and social sciences, business.
> Strong research focus
3
1 Swinburne
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1 Swinburne Library, Swinburne Circus
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Mission and values
> a focus on the customer
> collaboration and partnership
> a commitment to staff learning, growing and being creative
> the importance of information and knowledge in human society
> an equitable approach to accessing information, *open processes,
and
> a commitment to be open and responsive to change.
> a commitment to the library as an intrinsic part of and partner in the
teaching, learning and research mission of the university.
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ARROW and Swinburne’s Repository
> Partner in the ARROW project from 2004 to 2008
> Funding from Australian Government – about $8 million
> Led by Monash University, with three other partners – Swinburne,
University of NSW, National Library of Australia
> Developed repository software – VITAL – with VTLS, a US library
software company
> Swinburne repository is Swinburne Research Bank at
http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au
> Two other repositories using DSpace and Equella
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Repositories in Australia
> All universities must have a research repository
> Repository provides access to the institution’s research for
the research evaluation scheme ERA (Excellence in
Research Australia)
> There is Australian Government funding to assist – the
ASHER program of over A$20 million
> There is a strong preference for open access content
> Multiple software – VITAL, ePrints, DSpace, Equella, Fez,
Digitool, more
> I will refer to the Swinburne Model in this seminar
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2 Open access and publishing
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2 Open access and publishing
 Scholarly publishing is in a dramatic transition phase
 The scholarly journal – 24,000 or more of them – has mainly moved
from print to online in the past 10-15 years. The body of material is
still growing though.
 The scholarly monograph is becoming less viable financially as print
runs fall. Why? (a) affordability pressure as journals cost more, and
(b) demand factors, (c) rise of ebooks. But still just as important.
 Scholarly reference material is also moving online.
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2 Publishing - what’s online?
 Even more is moving online and it is often free:
 Newspapers and news
 Much government publishing is now online and mostly free
 Much reference material is now online, free or not
 Official information such as spatial information, statistical
information, law and legislation, election results, and much
more
 Research is moving online
 Some kinds of books are now online
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2 Publishing - what’s not online?
 What’s not online?
 Magazines are not online
 Textbooks are not online much – why? (a) the print business
model is better; (b) a heavily-used book sometimes works
better in print – i.e. demand factors.
 Fine printing is not online
 Monographs/books are not online until they have been around
for a while
 Journals where home subscribers dominate are not online
 How does this affect price?
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2 Open access and publishing
 Open access means free online access for everyone
 Closed access is access through some kind of barrier – usually
based on price
 Many kinds of open access – green and gold
– Open courseware
– Open access research publications
– Research data
– Open licensing
– Images and other research materials
– Out of copyright and online – is Google Books open access?
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2 Open access and publishing
 What does “published” mean?
 It means different things / different purposes:
 Copyright
 Defamation
 Academic publication
 Stevan Harnad uses the term “accessed, read and used”
 Can something be open access online and not published?
 Are these published? an online PhD thesis? a child’s drawing on
the classroom wall? this powerpoint?
 We are all publishers now
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2 Open access journals
 Open access is about the coming of digital online
 We have moved from print, to digital on CD, to digital
online
 Open access is about how we use it (access) and how
we pay (affordability/business models)
 Print was easy!
 Open access means NO TOLL : no gateway, anyone
can enter.
 It does not mean free. But who pays? And how?
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2 Open access journals – who pays?
What is paid for?
 Research and writing: this is usually made available to the
publisher without charge. The author usually organises
permissions too.
 Refereeing and peer review: the same applies.
 Editing is paid for by the publisher.
 Printing and distribution is paid for by the publisher, e.g. the case
of ALIA
 Pricing is mainly legacy pricing at this stage
 What are the real costs of online publishing?
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2 Open access – economics
> Professor John Houghton (Victoria University), Professor
Charles Oppenheim (Loughborough) and others
> Economic implications of alternative scholarly publishing
models: exploring the costs and benefits: a report to the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC), January 2009
>
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/economicpublishingmode
lsfinalreport.aspx
> Scholarly publishing cost UK higher education UK 5 billion per
year
> Open publishing models would save a great deal
> Publishers reject the conclusions
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2 Open access journals
There are several kinds
 Green: conventional publishing in journals, then selfarchiving in repositories. Who pays?
 Gold: the journal is open access. Who pays? There are
different models.
 Hybrid open access: the publisher agrees to make certain
single articles OA on payment of an article processing
charge
 Institutional membership OA where an institution bulk buys
the right to OA publication.
 Acknowledgements: Richard Poynder, Stevan Harnad.
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2 Open access journals
Rapid growth
 Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Lund University
Libraries http://www.doaj.org
 23,300 peer-reviewed journals in Ulrichs
 Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Blackwell and
Wiley (now merged) published 25%
 About 4000 are open access
 Half published in US and UK
 See http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/03
/dramatic-growth-of-open-access-march-31.html
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2 Open access journals
Very high stakes
 Concentration of the industry – Wiley and Blackwell
merged most recently (2007)
 Major STM publishers have over half the market, which
was $9.2 billion in 2005
 Reed-Elsevier: over 25% of world STM information
 Thomson Reuters
 Taylor & Francis
 Springer
 Wolters Kluwer (profit €918 million in 2007)
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2 Open access monographs
New model, approaching fast
 Decline of the scholarly monograph has been a long time
coming
 But the scholarly book remains extremely important
 Now quite common – the book is online and open access
(free) and you can buy a print-on-demand copy
 University presses are adopting this model
 Economics is the main driver – the buyer pays the full cost
of printing, the university pays the cost of publishing
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2 Open access science
Science tends to be open
 Many universities have now committed to open access to
research outputs
 e.g. MIT faculty
 Grant the university nonexclusive permission to
distribute their articles through DSpace
 Have the right to use and share articles for any nonprofit purpose
 Similar policies at some schools at Harvard, Stanford
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2 Some reports
 The University’s role in the Dissemination of Research and
Scholarship – a Call to Action. ARL, CNI, Association of
American Universities. February 2009.
 http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/disseminating-researchfeb09.pdf
 Focus on dissemination of new knowledge
 Scepticism about the current publishing model
 Focus on the university retaining control, not giving it away
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2 Some more reports
 The Research Library’s Role in Digital Repository Services:
Final Report of the ARL Digital Repository Issues Task
Force. January 2009.
 http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/disseminating-researchfeb09.pdf
 Venturousaustralia: building strength in innovation. (The
Cutler Report). Canberra, Department of Innovation,
Industry, Science and Research, 2008.
 http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview
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2 New copyright models
Open licences

The anomaly of open access and online is that
1) we could have new knowledge made immediately and
cheaply available to all
2) But we have a traditional structure of state-created
monopoly (copyright) which creates artificial shortage
when there is natural glut
3) The great advantage of the digital world is therefore
resolutely opposed by the current system of scholarly
publication

Does something have to give? Maybe.
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2 New copyright models
Open licences

Creative Commons are the best known open licence
structure – see http://www.creativecommons.org

The four licences are


Attribution

Share alike

Noncommercial

No derivative works
A large amount of material is being licenced this way
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2 Open licensing
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3 Open access and libraries
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3 Open access and libraries
 Libraries are supremely a mechanism for open access
 They pay, you use
 They apply skills, software and processes to organise their
collections
 They work with other libraries to maximise access for all
 Libraries take pride in their openness – a core value and an
organising principle
 Digital libraries use the same skills and principles as book
libraries
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3 Open access and libraries
 Digital libraries are where we are heading, and mostly open
access.
 They use these skills
 Quality control
 Version control
 Comprehensiveness and completeness
 Continuity
 Vocabulary management
 Standards
 Pretty good. Better than Google.
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3 Open access and libraries
 Open access is where we are headed
 It is a complicated world, and what libraries are working with
now are discovery layers
 How to find what you want without all the noise of a Google
search.
 How to integrate searching open access, open Web, and
commercial access
 How to organise information so that it can be found
systematically
 How to “publish” so that we can all use it
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4 What is a repository?
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A Repository is a way of organising things
> Not really much like a
backpack
> More like a library
> We hope
> A repository ORGANISES
and COMMUNICATES
> For the researcher it should
– SAVE TIME
– PROMOTE YOUR
ACHIEVEMENTS
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. . . and make things VERY accessible
> Like Google
> Most repositories can be searched as full-text through standard
general search services such as Google,
> Google Scholar provides access to “academic” content. It is
beginning to search repositories.
> OpenDOAR provides a full-text search service
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A repository can organise anything digital
> Like the Mousebrain library
> It organises segments of
mouse brains
> Just like a library would
> http://www.mbl.org
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4 Repositories – what are they?
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/harnad
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4 Repositories – what are they?

Institutional location and focus

Focus on research outputs – theses, refereed articles, much
more

Web visibility: easy access via the web to their full content.

Full text where possible.

Organised - structured information (metadata) about the
documents, following the eprints.org standard

Managed over the longer term, including permanent locations

Swinburne approach is pragmatic, open, experimental,
empirical and always RESEARCHER-FOCUSED
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4 Repositories – what are they?
JISC’s view too:
> “England and Australia have accepted that voluntary facultyinitiated and faculty-performed self-archiving is not a viable
model for institutional-repository population, and they are
beginning to move on.”
> An IR must be part of “a systematic, broad-based, wellsupported data-stewardship, scholarly-communication, or digitalpreservation program.”
> All about rights, workflows, advocacy, technical systems,
worldwide information flow, policies, and more
> See the JISC Repositories Support Project and the Australian
CAIRSS
Neil Jacobs, Amber Thomas and Andrew McGregor, “Institutional repositories in the
UK: the JISC approach. Library trends 57(2) (Fall 2008) p.124(18)
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4 Repositories – what purposes?
> There are many purposes
– Open access to research for us to share and build on
– Resource discovery
– Dissemination of research widely
– Research evaluation and assessment
– Institutional and personal impact
– Information asset management by institutions
– Process improvements – store once, use many times
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5 Repositories – plenty of rules
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5 Repositories – open access rule 1
Rule 1 – Copyright still applies
 Open access removes the price barrier: anyone can access
 The content remains subject to copyright
 There are limits on copying, re-use, transmission but fair use or
fair dealing still applies
 The open access evangelists distinguish between free and libre
(“free” in French)
 “Libre” removes some copyright barriers but not all – it means
open licences such as Creative Commons licences
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5 Repositories – open access rule 2
Rule 2 – What can be deposited? The options include
 Publishers mostly permit open access but there are limits SHERPA is a database of publisher policies – see
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk
 Gold = open access journals
 Green = you can archive pre-print and post-print and maybe the
publisher’s version (the published PDF)
 Blue = you can archive post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing)
 Yellow = can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing)
 White = no archiving
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5 Repositories – more about rule 2
Definitions

Pre-print = the article before it has been peer-reviewed

Post-print = the article after it has been peer-reviewed but before it has
been edited for publication

Publisher PDF = the version of the article as it appears in the published
journal
Limitations

Most publishers impose limits on what you can put on open access

We will look at these now

Publishers mostly permit open access sometimes. But they limit the
circumstances
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5 Repositories – open access rule 3
Rule 3 – Is there an embargo period?
 Many publishers allow your article to be included in a repository
 But they have an embargo period
 E.g. the National Institutes of Health (US) has a maximum 12
month embargo
 You can put something into a repository any time, but not
expose it until the embargo has expired
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5 Repositories – open access rule 4
Rule 4 – What content in a repository?
Repositories of research outputs may include a wide range
 Books are not usually included – but there is a new trend
 Theses
 Conference papers & presentations – powerpoint, audio, video
 Metadata
 Book chapters
 Digitised material
 Research data
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5 Repositories – open access rule 5
Rule 5 – Permission is always necessary
 Some permissions are stated as policies – summarised in
SHERPA and publishers’ websites
 In the US federal regulations provide permission
 If the author retains copyright, the author can provide permission
 If the publisher owns copyright, you can seek it from them – with
small publishers, this is a good way to go
 A new strategy is to EDUCATE AUTHORS about the importance
of retaining some rights
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5 Repositories – open access rule 6
Rule 6 – You can pay for open access
 Some publishers now permit open access for a fee
 And some open access journals rely on author fees
 Should the library pay the fee?
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6 What Else Can a Repository Do?
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6 What Else Can a Repository Do?
Some examples from Swinburne.
The repository includes records for all publications and full text for
some. A repository can do lots of things including these:
 Data management
 Publishing
 Integrating workflows
 Promoting researchers
 Mandates?
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6.1 Data management
> Swinburne conducted a survey of researcher data practices in 2007 –
conducted by Dana McKay
> In 2009 joint project of the library and Swinburne Research to develop a
project plan for data management – by June 2009. Key inputs:
– survey
– models developed at other institution
– imperatives from funding bodies
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6.2 Publishing
> Online journals using OJS. See the eJournal of Applied
Psychology at http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap ARROW
Project 2005
> Online conferences using OCS. We are piloting the Cumulus
conference http://cumulus09.com/ in November.
> Online monographs using OMS? Under discussion with the
Faculty of Design and print on demand players. Looking for
partners in a collaborative efforts.
> Presentations by Teula Morgan at PKP Scholarly Publishing
Conference http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/viewabstract.php?id=44
> At Swinburne, Teula Morgan and Helen Wolff have established
and developed this service.
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6.3 Integrating workflows, saving time
 ARROW project established HERDC Working Group in Jan 2008
 Final Report late 2008 is at http://www.arrow.edu.au/docs
 Workflow

Input to repository, transfer to research management system, output to
HERDC

Ensures repository holds records for 100% of HERDC publications

Model relates to





The organisation
The collection process
The data – e.g. quality control, who inputs, metadata, timing
Collection and storage of evidence
The software
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6.4 Researcher profiles
> Project funded by ARROW in 2007
> Purpose was to explore the use of the repository as a source of
data for other university systems
> Creates online profile pages for Swinburne researchers with all
data drawn from existing sources
> Prototype drawing on repository, identity management, staff
directory and research management systems
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6.4 Researcher profiles
> Next stage:
– Add to functionality including FOR (field of research) codes,
grant information, researcher log-in process, ERA value
– Go live with system in May
– Enhance with data not currently in university systems
> Marketing Department is an enthusiastic partner with the librafry
and Swinburne Research
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6.5 Mandates?
> Mandating has been achieved at many institutions
> Mandating is complex – you can’t mandate deposit or
everything
> If you do, you can’t mandate that it goes on open access
> The best mandates are administrative, embedded in
processes – e.g. HERDC, theses
> The time-saver mandate – “Save me time” – mandating
MUST achieve a clear benefit for researchers
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7 Making repositories work
> Widen the scope
> Sharing infrastructure –
CAIRSS in Australia
> Metadata – who does it and
how?
> Content recruitment
approaches
> Use and non-use
> Copyright
> Librarians, of course
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7.2 Sharing infrastructure
> CAIRSS = CAUL Australia Institutional Repository Support
Service – cost about $350,000 per year
> http://www.caul.edu.au/cairss/
> Similar body in the UK – is the Repositories Support
Project at http://www.rsp.ac.uk – a huge amount of
information, most recently a suite of podcasts
> Swinburne provides copyright support as part of CAIRSS
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7.3 Metadata – names in context
> NicNames Project funded by ARROW 2008-09 – objective is to
“develop a practical toolkit to manage author names in a
repository that will assist the effective identification,
disambiguation, matching and display of names.”
> November 2008 to June 2009
> http://nicnamesproject.blogspot.com/
> Links to People Australia (NLA), and work by NISO, JISC,
Thomson (Web of Knowledge), Elsevier (Scopus) and others.
> Both Thomson and Elsevier are developing unique researcher
ID systems
> “Names touch everything” http://hangingtogether.org/?p=561
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7.3 Metadata – names in context
 Rebecca suggests in the project blog that “The trouble with
names is they belong to people.”
 What is wrong with the term “name authority control”?
 Traditional cataloguing standards are designed by librarians for
librarians - Name authorities are not just for librarians – names
make a difference
 The DIY approach originally intended for repositories may
compound the problem of managing author names – see
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/
 Neither does the “take no prisoners” conventional library
approach
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7.3 Metadata – names in context
 Some issues:
– library systems are more concerned with stock inventory
than resource discovery
– authors have no input in the way their works are
represented – cataloguing standards treat them as just
another piece of descriptive metadata
– Academics use different forms of their names for specific
purposes
– There is no standard numbering system for people – there
is, but privacy pendants won’t let us use it
– Institutions have names, too
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7.4 Content recruitment
 How do you get content into the repository?
 Self deposit by the author
 But incentives may be too low, and barriers too high
 OR deposit by repository staff
 All about workflows?
 Add a record and revise it later
 Provide open access to the text if possible
 Seek a copy from the author
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7.4 Content recruitment
 These are new skills in librarianship
 Institutional repositories are still developing – after only
five years – a sense of how they should work
Where repositories fit into a library is still not clear –
even in Australia where every library has one
At Swinburne we use a customer relations
management system
We accept that Swinburne Research Bank is a
service we offer to academic staff
Repository staff need to be both proactive and
responsive to real needs
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7.6 Copyright
 Authors have a wide range of rights in most contracts
 Provide copies to colleagues (100%)
 Incorporate into other works (90%)
 Post to personal / dept website (85%)
 Post to repository (75%)
 Use in course packs (95%)
 See Sally Morris, Journal authors’ rights: perception and reality.
London, Publishing Research Consortium, 2009. PRC Summary
Paper 5.
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7.7 Librarians
 SHERPA has an outline of the skill set required for an
institutional repository manager / administrator – a super hero
more than librarian
 Five pages all about
 Software (Unix, Linux, SQL Server, MySQL, XML, PHP,
JAVA, PERL)
 Metadata skills
 Data storage
 Content including intellectual property skills
 Liaison, advocacy, training and support, management
 You need one of them. More than one. Many more.
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A Short Conclusion
Scholarly communication more than ever needs the library
 The skills and knowledge of libraries are needed more than
ever to organise the confusing scholarly communication
universe.
 The future library will manage the online scholarly world
 Open access is part of the picture, price is part of the picture
– this will not change tomorrow
 Free does not mean DIY – it is too complicated
 Libraries are entering the world of publishing and becoming
skilled and important players.
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Someone has to make sense of it all
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Thank you
Derek Whitehead
Director, Information Resources and University Copyright Officer,
Swinburne University of Technology
Chair, Australian Digital Alliance
President, Australian Library and Information Association
dwhitehead@swin.edu.au
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