1. Enjeux de l’Open Access : le green OA, coûts et bénéfices
Couperin Open Access Conference: Généraliser l’accès ouvert aux résultats de la recherche
Paris, 24/25 January 2013
Enjeux de l’Open Access : le green OA, coûts et bénéfices
Alma Swan
Director of Advocacy, SPARC Europe
Convenor, Enabling Open Scholarship
Director, Key Perspectives Ltd
Director, Infrastructure Services for Open Access

2. Les coûts et bénéfices Benefits: Costs: Publisher adaptation
Faster, more efficient, more effective research
Outreach to professional and practitioner communities
Outreach to the education community
Outreach to the business community
A better Knowledge Society
€€€ ?
Costs:
Publisher adaptation
Author adaptation
€€€ ?

3. Three Open Access scenarios
Self-archiving in repositories (‘Green’ Open Access)
(1) In parallel with subscription journals
(2) Instead of subscription journals, via repositories with overlay services
(3) Open Access journals (‘Gold’ Open Access publishing)

4. Another dimension Worldwide versus unilateral OA
Worldwide = when all institutions (or nations) convert to OA
Unilateral = when only the test institution (or nation) converts to OA and the rest of the world continues with the current situation

5. National models

6. National pictures (worldwide OA)
Annual € savings from moving to: UK
Netherlands
Denmark
US federal agencies
OA journals
(‘Gold’ OA)
480 million
133 million
70 million
Value of benefit amounts to some 4x to 25x the cost
Benefit/cost ratio
1.4
OA repositories with subscriptions (‘Green’ OA)
125 million
50 million
30 million
4.2
OA repositories with overlay services
Circa 480 million
Circa 133 million
Circa 70 million
(Houghton et al, 2009, 2010)

7. Benefit-cost ratios (UK) (worldwide OA)
(CEPA, 2011)

8. Institutional models

9. Three Open Access scenarios
Self-archiving in repositories (‘Green’ Open Access)
(1) In parallel with subscription journals
(2) Instead of subscription journals, via repositories with overlay services
(3) Open Access journals (‘Gold’ Open Access publishing)

10. Research income per annum
UK: Case studies
University
Research income per annum
University A
2 million GBP
University B
10 million GBP
University C
75 million GBP
University D
200 million GBP

11. Savings from Green OA (with subscriptions)
GBP per annum

12. ‘University UK’: Annual savings from OA
GBP per annum

13. Savings from OA via OA journals

14. More realistic assumptions
Before:
Universities would pay for all articles published by authors in their institution
Used average APC value of 1500 GBP
New: set of new assumptions:
The corresponding author is responsible for article processing payments
Where work is funded by external funders, the funder will pay article processing charges
So, a university only pays for unfunded articles where the main author is in that institution
Used ‘real’ average APC of 571 GBP* ...
Or ‘real’ disciplinary values*
*(Solomon & Bjork, 2011)

15. Savings from worldwide Gold OA
N.B. Modelled disciplinary mix with discipline-specific average APCs

16. Savings from Gold OA (different APCs)
APC = ‘real’
disciplinary values
APC = 1500 GBP
GBP per annum

17. Unilateral Gold OA incurs costs

18. Savings from worldwide Green OA
GBP per annum

19. Unilateral Green OA incurs costs
GBP per annum

20. Route through transition
Summary
Route through transition
Cost or benefit?
Gold OA - worldwide
Gold OA - unilateral
Benefit (savings)
Cost
Green OA - worldwide
Green OA - unilateral

21. National models

23. Modelling OA at institutional level
Cheaper, whatever model (Green or Gold) for all nations studied
Transitioning: through Green OA is the cheapest route:
Amount of Green OA grows to % of all articles
Authors’ final versions are acceptable as a substitute
Libraries consider it safe to cancel subscriptions
Publishers convert to Gold OA (service provision rather than product sales)
Cash available in institutions (savings from subscriptions) to pay for Gold publishing services

24. Thank you for listening