Open Access: Perspectives from a London university Professor David Price UCL Vice-Provost (Research) ‘Open Access: Measuring the costs to Universities of implementing RCUK policy’, London Higher, 6 November LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Open Access: Perspectives from a London university Open Access as a solution Devil in the detail Recent OA history Main objections UCL and OA – background, guiding principle, engagement and recent initiatives LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Open Access as a solution Problem: A massive amount of research findings, generated through public and other funding, remain inaccessible Solution: Make research outputs free at the point of use. Open Access (OA) literature is: digital online free of charge free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY Nicepix25216Nicepix25216 (Flickr)

Devil in the detail We held that OA is both right in principle and a key mechanism for the effective dissemination of research outputs critical to achieving public benefit Yet the path to its implementation is a minefield of conflicting political, ideological, commercial and practical interests … … not least regarding the status of Green OA (e.g. institutional repository) v. Gold OA (publisher paid to make available) LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Recent OA history March 2011 – Universities Minister convenes meeting to determine the “when and how” (not the “whether”) of OA June 2012 – Finch Report July 2012 – Government accepts Finch recommendations July 2012 – Research Councils UK policy announced and revised May 2013 September 2013 – House of Commons Business, Innovation & Skills Committee report August 2013 – HEFCE consultation LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Main objections RCUK policy Publication Green OA Other LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

UCL and OA – background c4,800 postdoc/staff researchers, and c4,500 postgraduate research students – from Architecture to Zoology 9,000+ research publications/year Scholarly weight Committed to ‘impact’ (on our terms) Publication is our core business; open publication is our aim LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

UCL and OA – guiding principle “UCL’s expectation is that researchers will, in all cases, use their disciplinary knowledge to select the most effective dissemination channels for their research. UCL researchers are free to choose where to publish, how much to publish, and how often they publish” LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

UCL and OA – engagement UCL has tried to support OA: LERU University of London repositories Europe-wide PhD repository Institutional OA policy Institutional OA repository, UCL Discovery LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

UCL and OA – recent initiatives Implementation Plan to accommodate the new RCUK policy: UCL Publication Fund compliance monitoring negotiation with publishers over reduced APCs UCL Press – beyond 20th century publishing: OA ‘overlay’ journals OA monograph publishing system LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Open Access: Perspectives from a London university Professor David Price UCL Vice-Provost (Research) ‘Open Access: Measuring the costs to Universities of implementing RCUK policy’, London Higher, 6 November LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY