Introducing customer experience Liam Earney Managing the total cost of publication

Jisc’s negotiations for offsetting agreements » Context › Current Jisc open access activity › Why do we want offsetting agreements in the UK? › Data on APC spend » Experiences with offsetting agreements » Some principles for offsetting agreements » Challenges » Conclusions

Context

Jisc and open access Open Access4 Support throughout an article’s lifecycle from submission to use Policies Decision support Negotiations Discovery and access Usage reports Reporting tools Notification Community professional support

Why do we want offsetting agreements? » Designed to address a specific challenge facing UK research intensive institutions » The need to limit combined cost of APCs and subscriptions in hybrid journals › “Total cost of publication” » In spirit of Finch and Government response: “….a meaningful proportion of an institution's total [article processing charges] with a publisher to be offset against total subscription payments with that publisher".

Growth in APCs paid Based on data collected by Jisc from 15 UK HEIs figures are estimates based on partial data. Source: Jisc Collections

Experiences with offsetting

Experiences » Working on offsetting proposals since start of 2014 » Agreements are pilots › Need to monitor changing environment › Need to see how effective the agreements are » A range of agreements in place: › Institute of Physics › Royal Society of Chemistry › Sage › Taylor and Francis › Wiley » Springer from October

Experiences » A variety of schemes › Offsetting APC spend against subscription costs › Credits against APCs based on total expenditure › APC vouchers based on level of subscription spend › “Flipped models” – subscription fees pay for APCs, small additional fee to cover access to content » Discounts of up to 90% » Models have different impact based on publisher

Some principles for offsetting agreements

Principles guiding offsetting agreements? » Challenge to Jisc Collections from UK libraries: › What is our ideal? › What constitutes a ‘good’ proposal? › How do we evaluate proposals? › How do we state our requirements proactively?

Principles » support the transition to full open access » ensure that publishers do not charge the same institutions twice, through the payment of subscriptions and APCs » not be restricted to institutions that subscribe to a publishers “big deal” » apply at the level of each subscribing institution » operate on a “cash basis”, rather than voucher basis » be available at the institutional level rather than just the individual researcher Offsetting systems should:

Attributes of schemes » Schemes are reviewed in light of the following attributes: › Degree to which they support the transition to OA › Affordability › Ease of administration › Transparency » Tensions between different attributes, but the first is seen as most important

Challenges and conclusions

Challenges » Hybrid publishers refusing offsetting agreements » Dynamic policy environment » Sustainability › Administration › Research funding at risk › Retreat from hybrid in absence of offsetting » Incentivising researchers and publishers › Price sensitivity › Take up

Conclusions » Too early to be certain of implications and impact › Data is sometimes contradictory » There is still huge interest in the progress of offsetting schemes » The success of offsetting schemes and the fate of hybrid open access are closely linked » Jisc wishes to see and promote all approaches that offer high quality, cost effective & sustainable transition to OA

Thank you Liam Earney Director of Jisc Collections Available under CC-BY