Open Access Research: Opportunities to broaden

your impact

Meredith T. Niles, PhD

Post-doctoral research fellow

Sustainability Science Program

Harvard University

2013 Switzer Fellow

Overview

• Why Switzer and open?

• The current state of academic publishing

• What is Open Access?

• Pathways for Open Access – Open Access publishing

– Self-archiving

• Emerging trends in open access policies and funding

Why Switzer and Open? Switzer Values

• Belief in Individuals.

• Environmental Stewardship.

• Sustainability and Systems Thinking.

• Interdisciplinary and Innovative Problem-solving.

• Maximizing Impact.

• Accountability and Results.

Current state of publishing • The internet changed the world, and with it was

an opportunity better share research cheaper.

-25%

25%

75%

125%

175%

225%

275%

325%

375%

425%

1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010

% C

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986

Source: ARL Statistics 2010-11 Association of Research Libraries, Washington, D.C.

*Includes electronic resources from 1999-2000 onward.

Monograph and Serial Costs

in ARL Libraries, 1986-2011* Serial Expenditures

Monograph Expenditures

Monographs Purchased

Current state of publishing • Despite the internet making publishing

cheaper, journals have gotten more expensive

Current state of publishing • Many for-profit publishers have high profit margins

as a result

80% of research is

publicly funded

Source: “Academic Publishing: Survey of funders supports the benign Open Access outcome priced into

shares, HSBC Global Research,” February 11, 2013:

https://www.research.hsbc.com/midas/Res/RDV?ao=20&key=RxArFbnG1P&n=360010.PDF

1

Current state of publishing • Even though most of scientific research is publicly

funded

Things are changing "The system is absurd, and it is inflicting terrible damage on libraries…We simply cannot go on paying the increase in subscription prices. In the long run, the answer will be open-access journal publishing, but we need concerted effort to reach that goal.“ -Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard Library

Things are changing

Things are changing

Free, immediate online access to scientific &

scholarly articles with full reuse rights

Berlin Declaration on Open Access

Budapest Open Access Initiative

A history of open access

Many ways to Open

• Open Access Journals

• Hybrid Journals

• Self-Archiving

– Pre-prints

• Institutional, funder repositories

OA Options: OA Journals

• Open access journals

OA Options: Hybrid Journals

• Publish in a traditional journal with an open option and pay

• $2,950 for a Taylor and Francis article

OA Options: Self-archiving

• Pre-print servers

• Institutional repositories

Fact: Majority of publishers allow self-archiving

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/statistics.php?la=en&fIDnum=|&mode=simple

Know your options for archiving

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Funding OA

• Many open access journals are FREE

• Fee waivers (everybody’s doing it)

• Scholarship funds

• Write article processing charges into your funding

Of 9,645 researcher-authors who published in

Open Access journals between 2009 and 2011,

83% reported obtaining publication fee

assistance, with 12% of authors paying their

own publication fees and 5% receiving other forms of assistance (SOAP Survey).

Funding OA

http://www.plos.org/publications/publication-fees/open-access-funds/

OA benefits

Universi Personal

Open Sphere of Benefits

University/ Community

Public Good

Personal Benefits

2014 European Commission Report: +40.3% citation advantage for freely accessible papers -27.0% citation disadvantage for non-freely accessible papers

Source: European Commission Report: “Proportion of Open Access Papers Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals at the European and

World Levels—1996–2013 URL: http://science-

metrix.com/en/publications/reports#/en/publications/reports/proportion-of-open-access-papers-published-in-peer-reviewed-journals-

at-the

Growing Trend: OA Policies

Institutional Open Access Policies

Federal Open Access Policies

• White House directive

• Federal bi-partisan legislation

Emerging Trends: State Policy

Emerging Trends: Funder Policies

What you can do

• Make your work open in some capacity – Self archiving – OA journals – hybrid

• Encourage institutional or funder policies • Get involved in policy efforts

Making science more open benefits us all.

Meredith_niles@hks.harvard.edu @MeredithNiles1 (Twitter)

Knowing Your Responsibilities

Emerging Trends: Institutional Policies

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http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/advocacy12

OA myths

http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/general-information-about-open-access/dispelling-myths-about-open-access/

OA myths

http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/general-information-about-open-access/dispelling-myths-about-open-access/

OA myths

http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/general-information-about-open-access/dispelling-myths-about-open-access/

OA myths

http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/general-information-about-open-access/dispelling-myths-about-open-access/

OA myths

http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/general-information-about-open-access/dispelling-myths-about-open-access/

Many OA journals have high impact factors

McKiernan, Erin (2014): Being Open As An Early-Career Reseacher - OpenCon 2014. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1243319

McKiernan, Erin (2014): Being Open As An Early-Career Reseacher - OpenCon 2014. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1243319

McKiernan, Erin (2014): Being Open As An Early-Career Reseacher - OpenCon 2014. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1243319