Re: Open access to research worth �1.5bn a year

[heatherm@eln.bc.ca]

**  with apologies for cross-posting **

Re:  Stevan Harnad's Maximizing the Return on the U.K.'s Research
Investment http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/28-guid.html

Stevan's research is a novel approach for many of us, and may well be a
bit hard to understand at first.

Here is another way of looking at what I see Stevan as saying through this
research:

When an article is openly accessible, there are an average of 50% to 250%
more citations to that article.  In many cases, these will be citations by
researchers who would otherwise not have had access to the research.  
Examples of such researchers could include faculty at smaller institutions
in the U.K., researchers in developing countries, or researchers doing
field work in remote areas, such as the Canadian arctic.

The way science grows is that one researcher builds on the work of
another.  Sharing openly is like multiplying our research team - there are
more people working on the problems and issues of interest to us.  If they
are from another country, this works like an ad hoc matching funds
program.  The U.K. kicks in the equivalent of $100K Cdn for research; the
Canadian researcher obtains funds to continue the next phase of the study,
returning $100K of value back to the U.K.

Here is a different way of looking at the incredible economic benefits of
open access, which I think we can understand without even figuring out the
numbers.  Consider the human genome project, in which countries worked
together, sharing information openly, to map the human genome. This was
accomplished in record time.  If this project had not been carried out in
an open manner, what would it have cost, and how long would it have taken?  
Is it even possible to imagine that following a traditional
publish-and-subscribe approach to sharing of results would not have
greatly slowed down the process, and cost a very great deal more?

Stevan has gotten us off to a great start in looking at the economic
benefits of open access.  We haven't begun to explore the added benefits
for the non-research sectors of society:  the corporate sector, education,
and so forth.

hope this helps,

Heather Morrison