1. The Finch Report Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications Michael Jubb Director, RIN Secretary, Finch Group Bloomsbury Conference, UCL, 28 June 2012

2. The Finch Group  independent Working Group chaired by Dame Janet Finch  representatives of universities, researchers, funders, publishers, learned societies, libraries  different groups with different interests…………..  Remit:  how to expand access to peer-reviewed publications arising from research (focus on journals)  more publications accessible to more people  a sustainable model, and a programme of action  Report published 19 June

3. Current environment: economic factors  global increase in research expenditure  4% increase in nos. of research papers each year  rise of Asian and Latin American research  China responsible for 17% of all articles 2010  growth of international collaboration  financial pressures on libraries  ARL library budgets 3.5% of university expenditure in 1980s, <2.0% now

4. Current environment: technology  digital revolution in journal publishing  PDFs still dominant, but increasing moves towards ‘semantic publishing’  text mining?  data deluge, open data  links between publications and underlying/related data

5. Current environment: social, political, behavioural  openness and transparency  expectations that content will be freely available  disintermediation  or, disruption of established roles  information abundance and the economy of attention  growth of social media, even in the research space (?)

6. Issues and opportunities  online environment  internet is changing everything: huge growth in access, but full benefits not yet realised  barriers to access increasingly unacceptable in an online world  access for HE and research sectors  generally good, but patchy in less-well-endowed HEIs  access for society at large  generally poor  principle that results of publicly-funded research should be freely accessible in the public domain  effective publication and dissemination essential for realising that principle

7. Issues and opportunities: 2  benefits of wider access  enhanced transparency, public engagement  closer linkages between research and innovation  improved efficiency in research process  increased returns on public investment: economic growth, public services  momentum behind open access  how to promote and accelerate that in a managed way, maximising the benefits and minimising the risks

8. Issues and opportunities:3  international scope  UK authors listed on 6% of global total of papers (c220k)  46% of UK-authored papers also have authors from overseas  quality  world-leading status and performance of UK research community  closely associated with high-quality channels through which they publish their research  costs  transition means additional costs  sustainability – for publishers and funders – of key features of research communications system

9. Where are we now?  subscription-based journals (c 23k)  still predominant model  published by a wide range of publishers: commercial, not for profit, learned societies  licences purchased on behalf of readers  big deals  restrictions on use and re-use to protect revenues  open access journals (6.7k?)  <10% of articles  funding via APCs, but many journals charge nothing (3 at OU)  minimal restrictions on use and re-use  hybrid model

10. Where are we now?  institutional repositories  > 1750 worldwide, >150 in UK  UCL Discovery the largest repository in the UK: 225k items  <3k full text journal articles  access restricted  submitted or accepted ms; embargo period; restrictions on use and re-use  subject repositories  ArXiv, PMC and UKPMC, SSRN, RePEc………..  patchy coverage  relationships with publishers

11. What do we want?  researchers  speedy and effective publication and dissemination; high impact and credit; easy accessibility and use  universities  maximise research performance and income; access; reduce costs  funders  maximum impact from high-quality research; accessibility; reduce costs  libraries  maximise no. of journals/articles, at lowest possible cost; develop their roles in a changing information environment  publishers  sustain and develop services for effective publication and dissemination of high-quality research; secure revenues to enable them to do so  learned societies  sustain support for publishing; sustain revenues to support their other activities

12. Two questions  Is the current system acceptable or sustainable?  Would a global open access regime be preferable?

13. Success criteria  Accessibility  more UK-authored publications freely accessible anywhere in the world (including UK)  more non-UK publications freely accessible to UK researchers  more non-UK publications freely accessible to anyone in UK  Research and services  sustain high-quality research and the services that underpin it  high-quality services to readers and users  Financial  financial sustainability for publishing and for learned societies  costs/affordability for research funders  costs/affordability for universities and research institutes

14. Mechanisms?  Open access journals  improved access to UK-authored publications in UK and rest of world, with minimal restrictions  no impact on access to non-UK publications  need to remove funding barriers (cf Wellcome)  need for publishers to provide more open access options  Licensing extensions  only way to expand access to non-UK publications in short term  national licences?  licences for whole HE sector and NHS (cf SHEDL)  licensing for other sectors (SMEs, Government, voluntary organisations….)  Repositories  potential for expanded access to UK publications, but with restrictions  no impact on access to non-UK publications  benefits for universities  benefits also in access to grey literature, theses, data (?)  but by themselves, not a satisfactory or sustainable mechanism  risks to underlying publishing model

15. Conclusions  no mechanism on its own meets all the success criteria  hence the need for a mixed model for the short-medium term

16. Recommendations: 1  clear policy direction towards support of publishing in OA and hybrid journals  more effective and flexible arrangements to meet costs of APCs  minimise restrictions on use and re-use, especially for non-commercial purposes  rationalise and extend licences for HE and NHS  pursue proposal for walk-in access via public libraries

17. Recommendations: 2  work with representative bodies in key sectors to examine feasibility of consortial licences  future big deal negotiations should take explicit account of revenues provided as APCs  further experimentation on open access monographs  further development of repository infrastructure to improve interoperability  caution in limiting length of embargo periods

18. Costs  transition means additional costs: estimate £50-60m (cf RC and FC expenditure on research of £5.5bn)  £38m on OA publishing  £10m on extended licences  £3-5m on repositories  very difficult to calculate  pace of change, especially the extent to which the UK is ahead of the rest of the world  average level of APCs  publications with international authors  stickiness in reducing subscription expenditure as expenditure on APCs rises  importance of  working at international level  transparency from publishers on subscription and APC revenues  market competition  key advantage of gold OA is greater transparency on price  decisions by researchers and universities on price as well as quality/standing of journals

19. What will change?  a balanced programme  more people have access to more content, immediately upon publication, free at the point of use  accelerated progress to open access in UK and rest of world  better transparency and accountability  better engagement with research  closer linkages between research and innovation  improved efficiency in research process  a research communications environment that promotes innovation from new entrants as well as established players  will work only if the key players continue to work together

20. Thank you Michael Jubb www.researchinfonet.org