Open Access News

Research Funders' Policies for the management of information outputs, a new report commissioned by the Research Information Network and prepared by Rightscom, January 2007.  (Thanks to Steve Hitchcock.)  Nearly all of this long and detailed report is relevant to OA.  These excerpts from the executive summary hit the main conclusions and points that are not widely known:

In October 2005 the Research Information Network (RIN) commissioned Rightscom to conduct a study into the policy and practice of UK research funders in managing their research outputs....[T]he study examined the policies and practice of a selection of around 25 of the largest research funders across the public, voluntary, and private sectors including: the eight Research Councils; seven universities; and a selection of Government Departments, of research charities, and of industries that invest significantly in R&D in the UK....

1.2 Key Findings

1.2.1  Context

...Policy development in the UK has been influenced by international initiatives, and has been dominated over the past two years by moves towards a Research Councils UK (RCUK) position statement, finally published in June 2006, on access to research outputs. The key policy objective for many funders – although not always clearly articulated - is to enhance the efficiency of the research process and the dissemination of research results by making it easy for anyone interested in research results to gain access to them....

1.2.3 Policies Regarding Different Categories of Published Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

...Two issues have arisen as to the arrangements to meet such [publication] fees [at fee-based OA journals]. Research Councils affirm strongly that researchers themselves should choose where to place their articles; and that it is for researchers’ employing institutions to decide whether or not to pay publication fees. Under the Full Economic Costing regime for funding research projects which was introduced in 2005, universities can include in the indirect costs specified in their grant applications provision for meeting such fees.

None of the universities interviewed had yet developed a detailed policy on payment of publication fees, and none had modelled the potential cost. But none expressed any objection in principle to paying such fees, so long as the costs could be contained. Among charities, the Wellcome Trust has introduced a scheme to meet publication fees for researchers in some key universities; but both Leverhulme and the Royal Society expressed reservations about the model, although the Royal Society has recently launched an open access trial for its own publications. The Government Departments interviewed will not pay publication fees; and none of the commercial organisations interviewed had had any discussion with researchers about payment of such fees....

1.2.5 The Development and Role of Repositories

...Six of the eight Research Councils now require the deposit of journal articles in “an appropriate repository”, but many Councils express caution about the utility of institutional repositories. Their concerns focus on sustainability, and the difficulties in creating a coherent and consistent system across a large number of universities....

Many universities are now developing repositories, stimulated by the RCUK position statement and commitment from librarians, and by funding from JISC. Universities see repositories as a way of providing a showcase for the university and its research, and of improving the efficiency of research and scholarly communications. These two motivations are interlinked, but variation in the emphasis given to each of them carries implications for policy and practice....

1.3 Conclusions

A successful research and innovation system depends on the open exchange of ideas, information and knowledge. In order to produce high-quality research, researchers must have easy and rapid access to as wide a range as possible of the data and information produced by other researchers....

Research funders are struggling, as outlined in this Report, to find the most effective responses to these changes....

Key areas that need to be addressed include: ...

• Costs and Funding. There is remarkably little information available about the current overall costs of managing the information outputs of research in the UK and providing access to them. Similarly, little work has been done on the likely costs of current and new developments, and of how they might best be met in a sustainable way....
• Benefits. A focus on costs should not exclude evaluation of the benefits from investment in provision for managing information outputs effectively, in improving the efficiency of research, and in enhancing its impact. Failure to invest in putting effective arrangements in place will have damaging consequences....
• Intellectual Property. There is evidence of some inconsistency of approach among funders in seeking to resolve the tension between the aims of widespread and rapid dissemination of research results on the one hand, and protection and exploitation of IP on the other. There may be inevitable variations as between different funders’ positions on IP; but where research is funded as a public good, it is important that priority should be given to making results accessible as widely and rapidly as possible.
• Repositories. With one or two exceptions, repositories are not yet well-established, but their development is likely to have a major impact in this country and overseas. There is as yet, however, lack of clarity as to the roles of subject-based as distinct from institutional repositories. And for universities in particular there is a need for greater clarity as to the key purposes that repositories are designed to fulfil, the scope of their content, whether researchers should be required to deposit certain kinds of outputs, and the mechanisms for deposit and the creation of metadata.
• Open Access Journals. If the open access journals that rely on publication fees as a key part of their business model are to be sustainable in the long-term, research institutes and other funders must establish mechanisms for the payment of such fees. The Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust have begun to establish procedures, but other funders are cautious or hostile. Researchers and research institutes need greater clarity and consistency of approach....