Open Access Initiatives: Public Access Policies in the United States Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition An initiative of the Association of Research Libraries Open Access Initiatives: Public Access Policies in the United States Heather Joseph Executive Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition 21 Dupont Circle, Washington DC USA 20036 9th World Congress on Health Information and Libraries, September 21, 2005 • Salvador, Brazil

About SPARC Strategy: Education, Incubation and Advocacy Coalition of academic & research libraries (200+ in North America) working to address inequities in scholarly publishing system. Pragmatic agenda -- mission is to: expand dissemination of research Leverage networked digital environment to serve scholarship. reduce financial pressures on libraries. Strategy: Education, Incubation and Advocacy

Market forces driving change 1. Technology has changed everything! 2. Research library funding constraints continue to grow 3. Market power of STM giants - mergers, acquisitions change complexion of marketplace Over the past two decades, we’ve seen many efforts to come to grips with the stresses on scientific publishing. These have laid the groundwork for fundamental and systemic change by expanding awareness among faculty, librarians and publishers. Today, as the content industry analysts at Outsell concluded recently: “…it’s clear the current model is breaking up.” Outsell points to several market forces that are changing the scientific publishing landscape… First is the mission of scholarly communication. Scientist’s demand for publishing venues and for access to scientific literature -- and the ways they seek and consume knowledge -- have a huge impact on the market. Second is research library funding constraints. Researchers set the demand for journals, but libraries pay the tab. And the burden is becoming impossible to bear. Between 1986 and 2002 journal prices tripled. Library budget increases were far less, and the CPI rose just64%. Libraries cancellked existing subscription, passed on new subscriptions, and cut spending on books tro support a decline number of subscriptions. Third, on the supply side, the big publishers are getting bigger. There’s a huge gap between the top players and everyone else. Outsell estimates Elsevier currently holds a 20-25% share of the market. With this power, journal prices will likely continue to rise, regardless of cost efficiencies. And finally, there’s the impact of new publishing models born of the web. Immediate adoption by academic and research users is what fueled the growth of the web. But publishing models and scholarly communication paradigms haven’t caught up…not yet. But they will. The tipping point is drawing closer. “…it’s clear the current model is breaking up.” – Outsell (Feb. 2004)

Scholarly communication mission Research conducted and can be easily communicated electronically - and communicated much more widely, advancing scholarship. “More sites, more cites.”

Library funding constraints Serial & Monograph Costs, 1986-2002 North American research libraries ARL Statistics Costs continue to rise beyond the capacity of libraries to sustain access.

Market power of STM giants Response of largest publishers to the opportunity presented by internet: bundling of all their journals into an aggregated online service, available to institutions that can afford it for as long as they keep up their payments. So-called ‘Big Deal.’ No arguing that this has reduced the cost per use & hastened the assembly of digital libraries. But it threatens to squeeze out the smaller players.

…..BUDAPEST OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE Opportunity knocks “An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good” …..BUDAPEST OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE As I alluded at the beginning of my remarks, technology is driving change in many industries. It is a force so that powerful resistance is futile. And that’s especially true in the realm we are discussing because it unleashes immense public good.

Research results - a public good Leverages economics of Internet -- low marginal cost of dissemination Expands and accelerates dissemination Magnifies benefits of innovation Economic (e.g., prosperity) Social (e.g., health) Open access leverages return on investment Benefits far outweigh dislocations It is widely accepted that in a knowledge economy such as ours, prosperity depends as much -- or more -- on the knowledge DISTRIBUTION power of the system as on its knowledge PRODUCTION power. Open access is a means of… extracting more value from our huge investment in knowledge production delivering to taxpayers an enhanced return on their investment Open access accomplishes this by: Expanding & accelerating dissemination Exploiting economics of Internet -- low marginal cost of dissemination Magnifying benefits of innovation, both: Economic benefits (e.g., prosperity) Social benefits (e.g., health) A move to OA may bring about some dislocations, but from a societal perspective, the benefits of OA far outweigh these.

Impetus for change Societal Benefits Develop Public Policy Why open access? Societal Benefits Develop Public Policy SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION SYSTEM Now we’re seeing the prospect of fundamental change in scientific communication -- a system deeply rooted in traditions dating back to the 17th century. Market Forces Grassroots Efforts How open access?

Taxpayer access Credit Suisse First Boston: “[W]e would expect governments (and taxpayers) to examine the fact that they are essentially funding the same purchase three times: governments and taxpayers fund most academic research, pay the salaries of the academics who undertake the peer review process and fund the libraries that buy the output, without receiving a penny in exchange from the publishers for producing and reviewing the content.... “We do not see this as sustainable in the long term, given pressure on university and government budgets.” –Sector Review: Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing, April 6, 2004

Taxpayer access

Emerging policies First salvo: The Sabo Bill, or the “Public Access to Science Act” - June, 2003 “U.S. government-funded research belongs to, and should be freely available to, every person in the U.S.” “…any Department or Agency should make every effort to develop and support mechanisms for making the published results of research…freely and easily available to the scientific community, the private sector, physicians and the public.” Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example, a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access It’s not all or nothing If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model— certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never. Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own? IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions— Still, it never hurts to look Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe Market pressure continues to build and Policy changes can have a sudden impact It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

Emerging policies NIH Public Access Policy ( FY05) Appropriations Committee Report Language - June, 2004 “The (U.S. House of Representatives Appropriation’s) Committee is concerned that there is insufficient public access to reports and data resulting from NIH-funded research.” “….contrary to the best interests of the U.S. taxpayers who paid for this research.” Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example, a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access It’s not all or nothing If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model— certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never. Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own? IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions— Still, it never hurts to look Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe Market pressure continues to build and Policy changes can have a sudden impact It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

Emerging policies - draft legislation underway CURES Legislation - (slated for Fall 2005 introduction) U.S. Senate Focus on accelerating translation of research into medical cures through removal of barriers - including access barriers for all researchers and the public. Public Access Across Agencies - (slated for October 2005 introduction - (U.S. Senate) Focus on public access to research results across all major U.S. science agencies Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example, a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access It’s not all or nothing If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model— certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never. Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own? IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions— Still, it never hurts to look Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe Market pressure continues to build and Policy changes can have a sudden impact It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

Common themes in policies Right of public to have access to results of taxpayer funded research Create useful, long-term archive of federally funded material Accelerate pace of research; stimulate discovery and innovation Leverage the return on taxpayer investment Promote the advancement of science Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example, a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access It’s not all or nothing If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model— certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never. Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own? IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions— Still, it never hurts to look Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe Market pressure continues to build and Policy changes can have a sudden impact It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

Policies under development For more information on progress of these (and other) emerging Open Access policies in the U.S., please see: www.arl.org/sparc/soa www.taxpayeraccess.org www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/ Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example, a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access It’s not all or nothing If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model— certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never. Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own? IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions— Still, it never hurts to look Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe Market pressure continues to build and Policy changes can have a sudden impact It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress