The feasibility of collaboration between institutions and funding bodies in respect to financing open access publications (May 21st, 2007 Philadelphia, USA)
The workshop began with an introduction from Natasha Robshaw, BioMed Central, who gave an overview on:
BioMed Central article-processing charges
cost comparison of open access publishing options
payment mechanisms for open access publications
central funds for open access publishing...
By working with research administrators to set up central Open Access publishing funds, paid for as an indirect cost by research funders, librarians can make it much easier for authors to publish in open access journals, and so can accelerate the transition to a fully open access future.
Ellen Finne Duranceau, Scholarly Publishing and Licensing Consultant, MIT Libraries gave a presentation on the role of a librarian in an open access world. Ellen highlighted the redefined role of a librarian in an open access world and discussed MIT’s role in the open access world....Essentially MIT’s mission is focussed on the widest dissemination of information in an efficient and reliable environment, which is consistent with the open access world....
Ellen also discussed the changing positions of librarians since the conception of open access in 2002. Over the last five years MIT Libraries have identified new librarian roles to include information services librarian for engineering and science, Dspace product manager and scholarly publishing consultant....A faculty member from MIT libraries sums up the role of the librarian in the open access world: “I thought the faculty committee on the library system would be three years of dry drudgery. But it turns out librarians in their new role are now located at the centre of the most contentious and important issues of the day.”
The workshop continued with three discussions a) Collaborating with research administration and funders to set up central university funds for open access publication charges [led by Dominic Tate], b) administrating central funds for open access publication charges: memberships; individual payments; reporting and accountability [led by Maria Romano], and c) How can BioMed Central adapt open access payment models to meet the needs of the community? [led by Natalia Timiraos] ...
The delegates discussed researchers’ awareness of open access as an option for publishing research and highlighted their concerns with the current situation in the US. Two major concerns included the funders’ need to cover article processing charges and the lack of education about open access....
NIH contributes funds towards most of the research and this goes directly to the researchers rather than the institutions. The standard ‘page charges’ are paid by the grants made to these researchers. However the NIH is stretched and could not possibly provide appropriate funding for all processing charges. The delegates recommended the funders should be responsible for such charges. For example, in Ohio, the OhioLINK consortium has a BioMed Central prepay membership for all members. The board of regents of the state of Ohio funds OhioLINK. They also have an agreement with PloS for half of the article processing charges to be paid for by them....
Delegates recommended more education be provided about open access in order to encourage researchers to embrace the option. It was mentioned that one librarian has been teaching undergraduates about the benefits of this movement in the hopes that these undergraduates will recognise the value of open access when they reach the stage of publishing. Penn State was provided as an example of an institution actively supporting open access where The Dean of Libraries has focussed the university’s efforts into their open access activities such as the Dspace project....
Delegates from the University of Kansas Medical Centre noted that from their experience the key to making open access a success is education and information. A representative from the University of California Davis suggested that BioMed Central increase its visibility further so that researchers and funders are continually exposed to open access. The delegates agreed that more librarians do need to get behind open access-related activity in order to increase awareness and ongoing support from researchers and funders alike.
Texas A&M University is a rare example of an institution that currently receives some central funding from the university for their research. As a result, researchers at this institution have the benefit of knowing that open access publishing will always be an available option to them....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/15/2007 05:18:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
