Open Access News

[D]espite billions of dollars being spent by governments on R&D each year, relatively little policy attention has yet been paid to the dissemination of the results of that research through scientific and scholarly publishing.

A key question facing us today is, are there new opportunities and new models for scholarly communication that could enhance the dissemination of research findings and, thereby, maximise the economic and social returns to public investment in R&D? ...

The study draws on international and local experience to provide a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of existing and emerging alternatives for scholarly communication for institutions in Australia, and for Australia as a whole....

Perhaps the most important potential benefit of open access is enhanced access to, and greater use of, research findings, which would, in turn, increase the efficiency of R&D as it builds upon previous research. There is also significant potential to expand the use and application of research findings to a much wider range of users, well beyond the core research institutions that have had access to the subscription-based literature.

Estimating the benefits of a one-off increase in accessibility and efficiency we find that:

• With public sector R&D expenditure at AUD 5,912 million in 2002-03 and a 25% rate of social return to R&D, a 5% increase in accessibility and efficiency would be worth AUD 150 million a year;
• With higher education R&D expenditure at AUD 3,430 million and a 25% rate of social return to R&D, a 5% increase in accessibility and efficiency would be worth AUD 88 million a year; and
• With ARC administered competitive grants funding at AUD 480 million and a 25% rate of social return to R&D, a 5% increase in accessibility and efficiency would be worth AUD 12 million a year.

Note that these are recurring annual gains from the effect on one year’s R&D. Assuming that the change is permanent they can be converted to growth rate effects....

Expressing these impacts as a benefit/cost ratio we find that, over 20 years, a full system of institutional repositories in Australia costing AUD 10 million a year and achieving a 100% self-archiving compliance would show:

• A benefit/cost ratio of 51 for the modelled impacts of open access to public sector research (i.e. the benefits are 51 times greater than the costs);
• A benefit/cost ratio of 30 for the modelled impacts of open access to higher education research; and
• A benefit/cost ratio of 4.1 for the modelled impacts of open access to ARC competitive grants funded research....

There are new opportunities and new models for scholarly communication that can enhance the communication and dissemination of research findings to all potential users and, thereby, increase the economic and social returns to public investment in R&D. Open access is, perhaps, the most important.

Seizing these opportunities and realising the benefits will depend upon appropriate reward systems and incentives to ensure:

• Widespread adoption of open access strategies by universities, research funding bodies and government agencies;
• ‘Hard or soft mandated’ deposit of research output at the national, funder and/or institutional levels;
• Fully integrated institutional repositories or relevant subject-based archives based upon open access standards; and
• Fully developed links between content ‘publishing’ and research management, reporting and evaluation.

Research evaluation is the primary point of leverage, influencing strongly the scholarly communication and dissemination choices of researchers and their institutions. A related secondary point of leverage is funding, and the conditions funding bodies put upon it....Inter alia, this means:

• Ensuring that the Research Quality Framework supports and/or encourages the development of new, more open scholarly communication mechanisms, rather than encouraging a retreat by researchers to conventional publication forms and media, and a reliance by evaluators upon traditional publication metrics;
• Encouraging funding agencies (e.g. ARC, NHMRC, etc.) to mandate that the results of their supported research be available in open access archives or repositories;
• Encouraging universities and research institutions to support the development of new, more open scholarly communication mechanisms, through, for example, the development of hard or soft open access mandates for their supported research; and
• Providing support for a structured advocacy program to raise awareness and inform all stakeholders about the potential benefits of more open scholarly communication alternatives, and provide leadership in such areas as copyright....

Comment.  This is a detailed, credible attack on a hard problem:  estimating the net economic benefits to a nation in promoting open access to its research output.  Every policy-maker should read it.  Friends of OA in every country should bring its analysis and conclusions to the attention of their legislators and public funding agencies.