THE VALUE OF CROSSREF IN AN OPEN ACCESS WORLD Frederick J. Friend Honorary Director Scholarly Communication University College London

USER NEEDS AND THE OPPORTUNITY THOSE NEEDS OPEN UP The need users of academic journals have for key-word access to the whole corpus of journal literature, both subscription- based and open access content The opportunity CrossRef may have to develop such a service in a public-private partnership Students use Google because there is no better alternative Portals exist but content often limited or difficult to locate quickly Technical means to provide a comprehensive searching and linking service for academic use are already in place What we are lacking are the organizational structures

USERS SEARCHING FOR RELEVANT JOURNAL CONTENT Traditional method : use local library content, follow citations, use inter-library loan service to obtain articles not in local library This method inadequate in a networked world, therefore threat that intermediaries will be by-passed We talk of a pool of information, implying that it is like a static, shallow, well-lit and confined swimming pool It is in fact a huge sea of information, ever-moving, deep, dark and boundless Users plunge into this sea knowing only the outline of the shore they seek Opportunities for the intermediaries lie in guiding the user Opportunity for CrossRef lies in developing a tool that will assist both librarians and publishers in guiding users

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SERVICE Key-word searching – because users know key-words Links to both subscription and open access content – because users need both Librarians will be by-passed if their services do not include subscription content users need Publishers will be by-passed if their services do not include open access content users need Whatever our views for or against open access, the reality is that we live in a mixed economy of subscription and open access content, and our services need to reflect that reality The opportunity lies in providing a searching and linking service for both subscription and open access content

THE NEED FOR A PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP No single publisher can provide the comprehensive searching and linking service required by users Publicly-funded organizations have an interest in helping to develop such a service but not in maintaining it Way forward may lie in a partnership between publicly-funded and commercially-funded organizations Perception-barrier to be overcome, that CrossRef only exists for the benefit of its members Wider vision : CrossRef's general purpose is to promote the development and cooperative use of new and innovative technologies to speed and facilitate scholarly research.

PARTNERSHIP CAN BE A GOOD WAY FORWARD Publishers and publicly-funded organizations have been able to co-operate successfully, e.g. in the development of statistics of use of electronic content Will publicly-funded organizations be willing to provide development funding under certain conditions? Will open access publishers join the DOI system? Many questions but a good opportunity for CrossRef to develop a service which meets the needs of users for a searching and linking service to both subscription and open access content THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.