1. Open access in the Business School
David Wilson, Head of Research Support, Imperial College Business School

2. A bit of background I’m not a librarian or an academic
Have been a research manager at Imperial since 2009
Involved in OA through College working groups etc. since 2011
Regularly field queries from academic colleagues on OA and what they have to do
Try to think about what they want, their culture and incentives and how we can help
Not talking for now about research into OA from a business perspective, interesting though that is
Haven’t had time to do a proper survey – largely anecdotal from our BS, not aware of more rigorous research on BSs & OA.
Compliance in BS & esp. Management among best at Imperial

3. Who are we talking about?
Business Schools are not homogenous
Different disciplines have very different attitudes to, e.g. sharing pre-prints via subject repositories
Economists might not call what they do OA, but it can amount to the same thing…
…But much less established and poorly understood in business and management
So, OA can look like more of a cultural shift in some areas than in others

4. OA by any other name (since 1993)…

5. What do they think?
Awareness of OA and supporting arguments are not always high, often seen as an admin burden
Little academic outrage at publishers’ practices: RES or AoM aren’t Elsevier
OA and wider personal and institutional incentives don’t align:
Rankings culture prevails;
Journals lists are an obsession (FT, CABS), but many “top” journals ignore OA completely;
Many aren’t comfortable with OA (and DORA etc.) challenging this, even if they’re aware
E.g. been told that OA considerations will never influence academics’ decisions on where to publish. Comments from CABS research conference on DORA?

6. What can we (all) do?
Be clear and patient, don’t be afraid of repetition
Understand academics’ constraints and incentives: for some, wider culture shift is a long, long way off
Realise that different tacks on “compliance” will work with different people
Be prepared with:
Answers on policy, embargos, repositories etc.
Stats (e.g. influence on citations);
Examples where we know OA has had specific impact (e.g. dissemination to policy audiences)

7. OA and impact: one real-life example
Imperial researchers (Haskel et al) found greater productivity benefits from publicly-funded research than previously thought
Published (pre-print) as Imperial discussion paper early 2010
Referred to by ministers in spending review later that year, cited as evidence for protecting science budget
Journal version not published until 2013
Acknowledge this is one specific kind of OA: not necessarily “green” since pre-reviewers’ comments, but indicates influence of openly-available research and similar examples could encourage others