Open Access in the Great White North

Oh Canada!

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)

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CIHR-funded researchers are required to make their peer-reviewed publications accessible at no cost within 12 months of publication – at the latest. While the CIHR Open Access Policy provides researchers with clear guidance on CIHR's minimum expectation, in the spirit of public benefits of research, CIHR encourages researchers to make their publications accessible for free as soon as possible after publication.

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CIHR OA Policy

• Committing to academic freedom, and the right to publish;

• Maintaining the high standards and quality of research by committing to academic openness, integrity and ethics;

• Promoting recognized research best practices and standards across disciplines, and embracing and sharing emerging practices and standards;

• Advancing academic research, science and innovation;

• Effective diffusion of research results; and

• Aligning activities, programs and policies between Canadian and international research funding agencies.

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Tri-Agency Draft OA Principles

Draft Policy Statement

Peer-reviewed Journal Publications

Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication, either through the publisher's website (Option #1) or an online repository (Option #2).

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Options

• Option #1: Grant recipients submit their manuscript to a journal that offers immediate open access to published articles, or offers open access to published articles within 12 months (Gold)

• Option #2: Grant recipients archive the final peer-reviewed full-text manuscript in a digital archive where it will be freely accessible within 12 months (e.g., institutional repository or discipline-based repository) (Green)

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UTP Response

The policy is built on a model that is suitable and sustainable for science publications but does not work well for social sciences and humanities (SS/H) journals. There are some fundamental differences in these types of journals that should be considered when developing an OA approach:

• SS/H material has a very long half-life, and many articles are not heavily used or cited until the third or fourth year after publication.

• Articles in SS/H journals tend to be considerably longer than articles in science journals, and SS/H journals tend to publish fewer articles per issue.

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UTP Concerns around Gold OA

The Gold OA model, which generally relies on author publication charges (APC) to fund publishing operations, poses issues in the context of SS/H:

• SS/H articles can be quite long and APCs would be high.

• The Tri-Agency OA policy does not mention any increase in research funding to cover APCs.

• Many SS/H authors do not receive research grants.

• Would APC’s influence publishing decisions?

• Institutionally funded APCs might disadvantage younger scholars or less wealthy institutions.

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UTP Concerns around Green OA

The Green OA model, wherein an author deposits the full text of a peer-reviewed manuscript in an institutional repository, may also pose problems: • The original submission is often very different from the published article • The OA version be particularly discoverable without good metadata and

marketing. • Research has found that 44% of libraries would cancel some or all scientific,

technical, and medical (STM) titles and 65% would cancel some or all social science subscriptions.

• An embargo of 12 months would certainly mean substantial library cancellations for our journals

• A reduced revenue base may for editors to lower publication standards by eliminating multiple peer reviews, plagiarism checking, copyediting, marketing, or online platform features.

• Canadian scholars may not be able to publish their work • Canadian journals may decide to partner with large commercial publishers

outside Canada reducing publishing expertise in Canada.

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Consultation Results

• Many respondents commented that the policy could influence where they publish and could have an impact on their research careers.

• The majority of researchers commented that the policy would impact their grant funds if they would be required to pay APC’s.

• Some felt that the 12-month embargo period was too short while others felt it was too long.

• Respondents commented that the policy could have implications for the sustainability of journals and scholarly associations.

• Some respondents suggested expanding the policy’s scope to include research data and monographs.

• Several respondents mentioned the importance of optimizing repositories to ensure that papers are easily searchable and accessible.

• Some respondents questioned how compliance would be monitored.

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The Agencies recognize the importance of the issues raised in the consultation and welcome the breadth of views on how Canada can effectively transition to an open access environment for scholarly works.

Their goal is to announce a harmonized open access policy for peer reviewed journal publications in fall 2014.

They will continue, individually and as a group, to engage in discussions with key stakeholders including scholarly societies, publishers, institutions, libraries, and other research funders, to explore cooperative approaches for continuing to move towards open access to research publications.

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What next?

What are we doing about OA?

• Informing our editors and our contributors about the issues surrounding OA and what it means for their journal.

• Contributing to the conversation surrounding OA through discussions with industry associations such as the Canadian Association of Learned Journals.

• Surveying our contributors to determine the level of government grants related to publications so we will know how to react to policy developments.

• Researching the possibility of instituting an optional author-pay OA option for our journals.

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Anne Marie Corrigan Vice President, Journals

University of Toronto Press acorrigan@utpress.utoronto.ca

Tri-Agency Consultation

http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/policies-politiques/OpenAccess-LibreAcces_eng.asp

Tri-Agency Responses to Consultation

http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/NSERC-CRSNG/NSERC-SSHRC-OpenAccess_e.pdf

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