News Release: How to build a business case for an Open Access poli=

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25 February 2010
News Release

How to build a business case for an Open Access policy

A new report launched today (25 February 2010) shows how
universities can work out how much they could save on their
profit and loss accounts as well as increasing their contribution
to UK plc when they share their research papers through Open
Access.

The "modelling scholarly communication options: costs and
benefits for universities" report, written by Alma Swan, is based
on different types of university. It shows how universities might
reduce costs, how they can calculate these saving and their
greater contribution to society by following an Open Access
route.

Neil Jacobs, programme manager at JISC says, "This is the first
time that universities will have a method and practical examples
from which to build a business case for Open Access and to
calculate the cost to them of the scholarly communications
process. For example working out the value of researchers
carrying out peer-reviewing duties or the comparative costs of
the library handling of journals subscribed to in print,
electronically, or in both formats.

"As universities such as Edinburgh, Salford and UCL lead the
world to mandate self-archiving and adopt Open Access policies,
this report gives evidence to help universities make informed
decisions about how their research is disseminated. There are
still issues to overcome and the benefits of adopting an Open
Access route can be seen through economies of scale, the more
researchers disseminate their work through this route the greater
the benefits."

The key findings from the report show:

*The annual savings in research and library costs of a university
repository model combined with subscription publishing could
range from UK 100,000 to UK 1,320,000

*Moving from Open Access journals and subscription-funding to
per-article Open Access journal funding has the potential to
achieve savings for universities between UK 620,000 per year and
UK 1,700,000 per year if the article-processing charge is set at
UK 500 or less

*Savings from a change away from subscription-funding to
per-article Open Access journal funding were estimated to be
between UK 170,000 and UK 1,365,000 per year for three out =A0of the
four universities studied when the article-processing charge is
UK 1000 per article or less

*For the remaining university in the study a move from
subscription-funding to the per-article Open Access journal
funding saw the university having to pay UK 1.86m more in this
scenario

Jacobs adds: "While some research intensive universities may pay
more for the subscription-funding to per-article Open Access
journal scenario, it should be noted that many research funders,
including the Research Councils and Wellcome Trust, may
contribute article-processing charges as a part of normal
research grants, so that all universities have a potential source
of income to cover the majority of such costs.

"JISC is working with partners in the sector to overcome the
barriers which exist to adopting Open Access."

The report focussed on three approaches to Open Access:

Open access journals - content freely available online using a
business model that does not rely on subscriptions

Open access repositories - the current subscription-based system
is supplemented by the provision of Open Access articles in
repositories

Open access repositories with overlay services - content is
collected in repositories and service providers carry out the
publishing services necessary, for example the peer-review
process

Martin Hall, Vice Chancellor at the University of Salford says:
"We have recently implemented an Open Access mandate to
self-archive. The reason we decided to adopt this approach is
that evidence shows that research published online has higher
citations and can also be used as a way to promote our
competitiveness internationally."

If you're looking to implement an Open Access policy here are
four aspects to consider:

*Consult across the whole the university on the barriers and
benefits of implementing an Open Access policy

*Invest in a university repository; the small investment in
setting one up will yield benefits in managing and sharing a
university's research outputs

*Set up financial processes to manage income and expenditure for
Open Access publication charges; this will help researchers
publish in Open Access journals

*Promote the Open Access policy and procedures to all staff to
provide researchers with clear guidance on the opportunities open
to them.

Supporting materials:

*How to build a case for university policies and practices in
support of Open Access:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/programmerelated/2010/howtoopenaccess.as=
px

*Publishing research papers: which policy will deliver best value
for your university:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/publishingresearchpa=
persbpv1.aspx

*The report was commissioned by JISC and written by Alma Swan
from Key Perspectives Limited. Visit
http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/442 to download a full version of
the report.

*Listen to a podcast interview with Alma Swan and Neil Jacobs,
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/02/podcast99openaccesspolicy.aspx

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