1. Open Access Initiatives: Public Access Policies in the United States
Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition An initiative of the Association of Research Libraries
Open Access Initiatives: Public Access Policies in the United States
Heather Joseph
Executive Director,
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
21 Dupont Circle, Washington DC USA 20036
9th World Congress on Health Information and Libraries,
September 21, 2005 • Salvador, Brazil

2. About SPARC Strategy: Education, Incubation and Advocacy
Coalition of academic & research libraries (200+ in North America) working to address inequities in scholarly publishing system.
Pragmatic agenda -- mission is to:
expand dissemination of research
Leverage networked digital environment to serve scholarship.
reduce financial pressures on libraries.
Strategy: Education, Incubation and Advocacy

3. Market forces driving change
1. Technology has changed everything!
2. Research library funding constraints continue to grow
3. Market power of STM giants - mergers, acquisitions change complexion of marketplace
Over the past two decades, we’ve seen many efforts to come to grips with the stresses on scientific publishing. These have laid the groundwork for fundamental and systemic change by expanding awareness among faculty, librarians and publishers.
Today, as the content industry analysts at Outsell concluded recently: “…it’s clear the current model is breaking up.” Outsell points to several market forces that are changing the scientific publishing landscape…
First is the mission of scholarly communication. Scientist’s demand for publishing venues and for access to scientific literature -- and the ways they seek and consume knowledge -- have a huge impact on the market.
Second is research library funding constraints. Researchers set the demand for journals, but libraries pay the tab. And the burden is becoming impossible to bear. Between 1986 and 2002 journal prices tripled. Library budget increases were far less, and the CPI rose just64%. Libraries cancellked existing subscription, passed on new subscriptions, and cut spending on books tro support a decline number of subscriptions.
Third, on the supply side, the big publishers are getting bigger. There’s a huge gap between the top players and everyone else. Outsell estimates Elsevier currently holds a 20-25% share of the market. With this power, journal prices will likely continue to rise, regardless of cost efficiencies.
And finally, there’s the impact of new publishing models born of the web. Immediate adoption by academic and research users is what fueled the growth of the web. But publishing models and scholarly communication paradigms haven’t caught up…not yet. But they will.
The tipping point is drawing closer.
“…it’s clear the current model
is breaking up.” – Outsell (Feb. 2004)

4. Scholarly communication mission
Research conducted and can be easily communicated
electronically - and communicated much more widely,
advancing scholarship.
“More sites, more cites.”

5. Library funding constraints
Serial &
Monograph
Costs,
North American
research libraries
ARL Statistics
Costs continue to rise beyond the capacity of libraries to sustain access.

6. Market power of STM giants
Response of largest publishers to the opportunity presented by internet: bundling of all their journals into an aggregated online service, available to institutions that can afford it for as long as they keep up their payments. So-called ‘Big Deal.’ No arguing that this has reduced the cost per use & hastened the assembly of digital libraries. But it threatens to squeeze out the smaller players.

7. …..BUDAPEST OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE
Opportunity knocks
“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented
public good”
…..BUDAPEST OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE
As I alluded at the beginning of my remarks, technology is driving change in many industries. It is a force so that powerful resistance is futile.
And that’s especially true in the realm we are discussing because it unleashes immense public good.

8. Research results - a public good
Leverages economics of Internet -- low marginal cost of dissemination
Expands and accelerates dissemination
Magnifies benefits of innovation
Economic (e.g., prosperity)
Social (e.g., health)
Open access leverages return on investment
Benefits far outweigh dislocations
It is widely accepted that in a knowledge economy such as ours, prosperity depends as much -- or more -- on the knowledge DISTRIBUTION power of the system as on its knowledge PRODUCTION power.
Open access is a means of…
extracting more value from our huge investment in knowledge production
delivering to taxpayers an enhanced return on their investment
Open access accomplishes this by:
Expanding & accelerating dissemination
Exploiting economics of Internet -- low marginal cost of dissemination
Magnifying benefits of innovation, both:
Economic benefits (e.g., prosperity)
Social benefits (e.g., health)
A move to OA may bring about some dislocations, but from a societal perspective, the benefits of OA far outweigh these.

9. Impetus for change Societal Benefits Develop Public Policy
Why
open access?
Societal Benefits
Develop Public Policy
SCHOLARLY
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Now we’re seeing the prospect of fundamental change in scientific communication -- a system deeply rooted in traditions dating back to the 17th century.
Market Forces
Grassroots Efforts
How
open access?

10. Taxpayer access
Credit Suisse First Boston:
“[W]e would expect governments (and taxpayers) to examine the fact that they are essentially funding the same purchase three times: governments and taxpayers fund most academic research, pay the salaries of the academics who undertake the peer review process and fund the libraries that buy the output, without receiving a penny in exchange from the publishers for producing and reviewing the content....
“We do not see this as sustainable in the long term, given pressure on university and government budgets.”
–Sector Review: Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing,
April 6, 2004

11. Taxpayer access

12. Emerging policies
First salvo: The Sabo Bill, or the “Public Access to Science Act” - June, 2003
“U.S. government-funded research belongs to, and should be freely available to, every person in the U.S.”
“…any Department or Agency should make every effort to develop and support mechanisms for making the published results of research…freely and easily available to the scientific community, the private sector, physicians and the public.”
Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully
IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually
Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example,
a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus
or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access
It’s not all or nothing
If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model—
certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never.
Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own?
IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions—
Still, it never hurts to look
Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe
Market pressure continues to build and
Policy changes can have a sudden impact
It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

13. Emerging policies
NIH Public Access Policy ( FY05) Appropriations Committee Report Language - June, 2004
“The (U.S. House of Representatives Appropriation’s) Committee is concerned that there is insufficient public access to reports and data resulting from NIH-funded research.”
“….contrary to the best interests of the U.S. taxpayers who paid for this research.”
Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully
IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually
Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example,
a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus
or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access
It’s not all or nothing
If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model—
certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never.
Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own?
IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions—
Still, it never hurts to look
Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe
Market pressure continues to build and
Policy changes can have a sudden impact
It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

14. Emerging policies - draft legislation underway
CURES Legislation - (slated for Fall 2005 introduction) U.S. Senate
Focus on accelerating translation of research into medical cures through removal of barriers - including access barriers for all researchers and the public.
Public Access Across Agencies - (slated for October 2005 introduction - (U.S. Senate)
Focus on public access to research results across all major U.S. science agencies
Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully
IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually
Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example,
a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus
or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access
It’s not all or nothing
If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model—
certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never.
Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own?
IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions—
Still, it never hurts to look
Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe
Market pressure continues to build and
Policy changes can have a sudden impact
It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

15. Common themes in policies
Right of public to have access to results of taxpayer funded research
Create useful, long-term archive of federally funded material
Accelerate pace of research; stimulate discovery and innovation
Leverage the return on taxpayer investment
Promote the advancement of science
Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully
IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually
Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example,
a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus
or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access
It’s not all or nothing
If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model—
certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never.
Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own?
IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions—
Still, it never hurts to look
Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe
Market pressure continues to build and
Policy changes can have a sudden impact
It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress

16. Policies under development
For more information on progress of these (and other) emerging Open Access policies in the U.S., please see:
Assess your publishing program—and your market—carefully
IEEE has a lot of journals, consider each journal and its audience individually
Identify a journal that lends itself to an open access model—for example,
a journal that runs a deficit or a minimal surplus
or has an audience, such as students, that lends itself to open access
It’s not all or nothing
If IEEE wants to explore open access, it doesn’t need to convert hundreds of journals and millions of dollars in revenue to an open access model—
certainly, not overnight, and perhaps never.
Are society programs subsidized by the publishing program amenable to business models of their own?
IEEE is a large and well-run society, so I suspect that there are relatively few unexamined assumptions—
Still, it never hurts to look
Obviously, it would be better to explore alternative business models on your own terms and timeframe
Market pressure continues to build and
Policy changes can have a sudden impact
It’s prudent to explore new models before you’re under duress