CREATING CHANGE IN EUROPE : SPARC EUROPE AND SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING Frederick J. Friend Director Scholarly Communication University College London

WHY CHANGE? zRise in journal prices restricting access to scholarship (N.B. “Big Deals” only improve access to the titles included). zAccess restricted not only for scientific and medical users but also for humanities and social sciences as journal publishers use higher proportion of budgets zSmall publishers threatened by dominance of major publishers zFuture access uncertain because dependent upon publishers’ archiving and pricing policies zAccess restricted across the globe : a problem for rich and poor countries alike zRestricted access works against world-wide growing need for information as the driver for economic and social development

THE EFFECT OF JOURNAL PRICE RISES IN US AND UK

THE VISION z“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. The new technology is the internet. The public good they make possible is the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds. Removing access barriers to this literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.” Budapest Open Access Initiative

WHO CAN MAKE THIS VISION A REALITY? zWe can! zLibrarians alone cannot do everything, but librarians can form partnerships with academic authors, users and publishers. zMany authors and users are feeling the bad effects of the present scholarly publishing situation and are looking for better access to information. zMany publishers are worried about the sustainability of the present economic model and are looking for new economic models which will enable them to stay in business. zPartnership is the key to open up change: both SPARC and OSI work with publishers zPublishers can change and survive (so can librarians!)

LOOKING FOR A BETTER WAY…... zLibrary consortia : achieve wider access to big packages of journals zE-print services : successful for research literature in some subjects zOpen Archives Initiative : harvesting metadata in order to improve access zPublic Library of Science : author power zBudapest Open Access Initiative : funding to achieve change through author-archiving or alternative journals zSPARC : Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Initiative particular contribution to create change is to raise awareness and promote alternative journals and business models

SPARC: LINKING ADVOCACY AND ACTION Aid editors, societies, universities Build capacity SPARC PUBLISHING INITIATIVES Reduce startup risk Enhance awareness Promote action options SPARC ADVOCACY Demonstrate success

SPARC ALTERNATIVE JOURNALS CAN SAVE LIBRARIES MONEY WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY

SPARC EUROPE zSupported by LIBER, JISC, CURL, SCONUL, UKB, IWI, ANKOS and a number of individual institutions zCo-operation between SPARC Washington and European organizations had grown to a high level zMeeting in London February 2001 set up SPARC Europe z“SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research libraries, library organizations and research institutions that supports increased competition in scientific journal publishing.” z“SPARC Europe will collaborate with the international SPARC organization based in Washington, DC, but will develop Europe- focused initiatives under the direction of a European managing board and a Europe-based program officer.”

SPARC EUROPE INITIATIVES (ACTION PROGRAMME ON WEB-SITE) zRaising awareness amongst academic authors and users: leaflets and workshops to stimulate thought and action zEncouraging institution-based repositories of copies of journal articles written by academic staff: “good practice” to be identified on SPARC Europe web-site zProviding information about alternative journals: links from SPARC Europe web-site zSupporting open access initiatives : Open Archives Initiative (October Workshop in Geneva) and Budapest Open Access Initiative (developing new business models). zSupporting new journals committed to low-cost or open access: encourage libraries to buy when publishers change their policies.

BEING PREPARED TO COMMIT ….. zThe problems in access to academic journals will not be solved unless those who are looking for change are prepared to take action. zSPARC began in the US because universities were not only prepared to talk about change but to commit money to bring about change. zIn other countries, we cannot leave it to the US to take action: if we want change we have to make our own commitment of time or money. zThank you for listening - but please take action as well as listen! Join SPARC Europe if you are not already a member, talk about these issues to your colleagues and support open access journals.