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Researchers’ institutional support for OA publication costs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hettiemcfarlane/2548897187

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Background Question

• What can your institution do to support OA publishing, when costs occur?– Exemplified by Bielefeld University

• research-intensive university: x-1000 pub. p/A

– Local effects of large scale initiatives• BMC, OpenChoice-Deals (, Compact?, …)

– But mainly: the simple and the little things

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A Short Local History

• OA-Resolution in 7/2005• Massive repository activities• All kinds of dispersed OA-Activities

– Managed by researchers themselves

• BMC: Prepay membership library– Dramatic increase: 2003 (2) to 2008 (50) – Significant share of local WoS-corpus

(Even without medical faculty) - PubLister- OAI-Mining- ECO4R

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Idea: „OA Publication Funds“

• Crystallization point for all processes at the institution related to OA fees– support questions, money flows, invoices…– researchers, administration, library, publishers …

• Lower financial, psychological and administrative barriers

• Embedded in publication services family – OA repositories, journal platforms, DOIs/URNs

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OA Publication Funds: Principles

• Non-Invasive > authors‘ decisions untouched• Help the poor! > declaration of inability to pay• Sustainable business > hybrid OA if(f)

transparent subscription discount• Cost effective > lightweight administration• First come, first serve > budget limitation• Disciplinary balanced > specials for humanities

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OA Publication Funds: Timeline

• Start of the one-year pilot in 10/2008– Feel out the potential / defining the rules– No large-scale announcements / active infos

• Interim Evaluation – Around 30 claims, 50% approved – Plus ~50 for BioMedCentral and the dispersed– Many interesting side effects

• Prolongation for 2010 and beyond approved

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Process

Request during

publ.-prep.

Initial consultation(e.g. phone)

Claim (written,

e.g. eMail)

Check (maybe

enquiryCall)

Notification(e.g. eMail)

DecisionRegular

publication preps.

Publication process

Invoicereception

Invoicedistribution

Payment

author

library

publisher

Terms &Conditions

for OA publ.

Researchers‘ extra work: approx. one phone call and two eMails

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Experiences and Anecdotes

• Who asks what? – Health Science, Biology &Technical Faculty but also Philosophy– Mainly pure OA journals but sometimes also hybrid journals– Other interesting projects arose, e.g. OA conversion of a journal

• Problems and reasons for refusal– Unclear affiliation (shared payment models)– Statement of financial shortage not convincing – Hybrid journals / Unclear scholarly status of journal

• Does it change the (micro-) world of research?– Submission biases ? Limited, intended and transitional!

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Future of the OA-Funds

• Strategic effects– Enriches researchers‘ support opportunities– Helps focusing processes around OA– Helps structuring negotiation with publishers & administration

• Future work with publisher‘s contracts– Hybrid publishing (subscription/OA)

• ex post subscription discount based on OA costs (e.g. Springer?)• ex ante OA discount based on subscriptions (e.g. OUP)

– OA-Publishing: BMC, PLoS, NAR etc. • Future local work

– Relation “Acquisition::OA-Funds::Institution”– OA ‚projects‘ for humanities– Dedicated awareness raising for researchers

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Thanks! http://www.uni-bielefeld.de

wolfram.horstmann

@uni-bielefeld.de

- PubLister- OAI-Mining- ECO4R