Why should you make your work Open Access?

  • The Finch Report of July 2012 set out recommendations and reviewed the possibilities for expanding access and reducing the costs of UK peer-reviewed academic papers.
  • The UK government accepted nearly all of Finch's recommendations and UK Research and Innovation expect all funded research to be made Open Access.
  • HEFCE, on behalf of the various UK higher education funding councils, has made its final recommendations stating that all research submitted to the post-2014 REF should be published on an OA basis.
  • The Open Access and PURE submission policy states that, where possible, all new Journal contributions, including Conference Proceedings published in a journal issue, should be made available through Green Open Access by depositing the details of your paper in PURE, together with an attached postprint document, at the point of acceptance
  • OA increases readership - your papers will reach a wider audience, improving impact and citations.

Benefits of Open Access video by BioMed Central on You Tube

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OECD Report on "Making Open Science a Reality"

The OECD’s October 2015 report on "Making Open Science a Reality" reviews progress in making the results of publicly-funded research papers and the associated research data available by Open Access, looking at the rationale behind open access and the impact which open access policies have made so far, the legal barriers to progress and a review of the key actors in the field.  The main conclusions are that:

  • Open Science is a means to support better quality science, increased collaboration, better engagement between research and society
  • Open Science will lead to higher social and economic impact for public research
  • Better incentive mechanisms are needed to promote data-sharing practices among researchers

 

League of European Universities (LERU) Statement on Open Access

LERU (League of European Research Universities) have released a statement on open access on 12 October 2015 which calls for research funding to go to research, not to publishers.  The statement calls on the European Commission and the forthcoming Dutch EU presidency from January - June 2016 to develop solutions to the problems of ever-increasing costs of journals, including the problem of "double dipping", whereby subscribers to journals should receive discount on their subscription prices to take account of the priopotion of OA papers in the journal's content.
 
Read the full statement, "Christmas is over. Research funding should go to research, not to publishers!"
 
This appears to signal a shift in momentum in Europe on open access. LERU reports that the statement is supported by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. Open access was a specific priority of the Dutch EU Presidency (January-June 2016). 
 
Follow the debate on Twitter at: #christmasisover

 

European Communities Statement on Alternative Models for Open Access Publishing

With the European Union and most of the major UK research funders now mandating the Open Access publishing of research derived from public funding, calls for the development of a long-term, sustainable model for open access publishing are growing. As part of this process, the European Commission organised a workshop in Brussels on 12 October 2015 to collect information and reflect on some of the more established and newly-developed financial models for Open Access publishing. 

Green open access models using organisational or subject repositories and Gold open access models requiring Article Processing Charges (APCs) both have their advantages and disadvantages, but newer models are now coming to the fore which could optimise existing financial schemas and forge routes for the creation of new OA scenarios. The presentations given on some of these newer OA models can be accessed on the European Communities DG Research and Innovation website.

A discussion on the future of Open Access publishing models was launched on the new Digital for Science Platform on the same day. You can join the debate at: https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/content/what-future-open-access-publishing

In addition to the workshop, EC Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas has also issued a statement calling on publishers to adapt their Open Access publishing models to new financial realities. This statement can also be accessed on the EC's Europa website.