Three arguments for open access Mike Taylor Department of Earth Sciences University of Bristol

Three arguments for open access (or four if you count cost) Mike Taylor Department of Earth Sciences University of Bristol

Introduction Open access is here to stay!

Introduction Open access is now required by many funding bodies.

Introduction Open access is now required by many funding bodies.

Introduction Open access is now required by many funding bodies.

Introduction Open access is now required by many funding bodies.

Introduction Open access has not been universally welcomed by researchers.

Introduction Open access has not been universally welcomed by researchers. “Oh, the humanities!”

Introduction We will explore three four reasons why open access is good news Cost Justice Unity Potential

0. Cost (not that important)

What does an average paper in a subscription journal cost? According to The STM Report for 2012: Annual revenue of English-language journals is $9.1 billion Total number of articles published is 1.8–1.9 million ⇒ Average cost per article is $5081 Or about £3365

0. Cost (not that important) What does an average open-access paper cost? The Finch Report estimates are based on £1500–£2000 About 45–59% of £3365

0. Cost (not that important) What does an average open-access paper cost? The Finch Report estimates are based on £1500–£2000 About 45–59% of £3365 But more half of all open-access journals charge no APC Of the remainder, the average APC is $906 (Solomon and Björk 2012) So true average is about $453 Almost exactly £300

0. Cost (not that important) Paper in subscription journal: $5081 Paper in open-access journal: $453 Subscription paper costs eleven times as much WARNING: all figures are very approximate! The problem: subscription costs are spread around, so they're easy to ignore

0. Cost (not that important) Paper in subscription journal: $5081 Paper in open-access journal: $453 Subscription paper costs eleven times as much WARNING: all figures are very approximate! The problem: subscription costs are apread around, so they're easy to ignore

1. Justice

“Your job is not to get tenure. Your job is to change the world.” — Jonathan Foley.

1. Justice “We do basic research not only to know more, but to do more.” — Heather Piwowar. (I don't have time to go into this now, but ask me about non-commercial licences in the break.)

2. Unity

“Elsevier works in partnership with the communities we serve to advance scholarship and improve lives.” Taylor and Francis are “committed to the widest distribution of our journals to not-for-profit institutions in developing countries.” Oxford University Press have an “objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.” Cambridge University Press want “to further the [...] objective of advancing learning, knowledge and research.”

2. Unity FASTR bill (Fair Access to Science and Technology Research) Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL): “ACRL joined other national and regional library, publishing, research and advocacy organizations in a letter thanking members of Congress who introduced the bill.” Association of American Publishers (AAP): “Different Name, Same Boondoggle […] unnecessary and a waste of federal resources […] would add significant, unspecified, ongoing costs […] squander federal employees’ time with busywork.”

2. Unity

“Publish” means “make public”. Tragic irony: most “publishers” strive for the opposite.

2. Unity “Publish” means “make public”. Tragic irony: most “publishers” strive for the opposite. I am not having a go at publishers. This is an inevitable consequence of a barrier-based business model.

Publication is a service. Reconsider what publication actually is: If we pay publishers for the work they do, they don't need to own the results. No more lawsuits! 2. Unity

Pay publishers to publish. Obvious solution: This is exactly what “Gold open access” does. 2. Unity

3. Potential

What will open access enable us to do?

3. Potential What will open access enable us to do? We don't know!

3. Potential “I soon learned that many of the papers I was interested in reading were hidden behind expensive pay walls. I convinced my mom to use her credit card for a few [...] Luckily I was able to convince my mom to finance some more articles I needed and I learned to try different ways of circumventing the pay walls.” — Jack Andraka.

3. Potential “10 million reactions a year published in articles. Mining tools can process many of them. You can find out what compounds cause cancer, and which ones cure it. It's stalled because we need the published research to instruct the machines and we are legally prevented from using it.” — Peter Murray-Rust, Cambridge.

3. Potential

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Summary Open access publishing … … costs a tenth as much as the current arrangements … fulfils our moral obligation to society … realigns publishers' goals with everyone else's … opens the door to innovations we can't imagine

Three arguments for open access (or four if you count cost) Mike Taylor Department of Earth Sciences University of Bristol