Estimating the potential impacts of open access to research findings

Advances in information and communication technologies are disrupting traditional models of scholarly publishing, radically changing our capacity to reproduce, distribute, control, and publish information. The key question is whether there are new opportunities and new models for scholarly publishing that would better serve researchers and better communicate and disseminate research findings. Identifying access and efficiency limitations under the subscription publishing model, this paper explores the potential impacts of enhanced access to research outputs using a modified Solow-Swan model, which introduces ‘accessibility’ and ‘efficiency’ parameters into calculating returns to R&D. Indicative impact ranges are presented for Government, Higher Education and Australian Research Council R&D expenditures. We conclude that there may be substantial benefits to be gained from more open access to research findings

Libraries and the management of research data

A discussion of the role of university libraries in the management of digital research data outputs. Reviews some of the recent history of progress in this area from a UK perspective, with reference to international developments

The open access movement in Canada: a case for government action

This thesis builds a public goods case for government intervention in the academic journal market. Synthesizing information from interviews with the existing quantitative and qualitative literature accomplishes this goal. The cost of doing business in the academic publishing market has steadily risen over time. In response, an “open access” (OA) movement has formed. Members of the movement argue that making academic research freely accessible to anyone with an Internet connection is the ideal way to control these costs. Others, however, are satisfied with the status quo. Determining who pays what price to allow free access has become increasingly important. National open access initiatives could be implemented without government aid if universities and academic libraries worked together; however, a collective action problem prevents cooperation. The government has tools that could be used to help these stakeholders transition to an open access status quo

Open all hours? Institutional models for open access

Conclusion: In H G Wells’s ‘Country of the Blind’ the “one-eyed man is king’, while Canadian author Margaret Atwood has said, “an eye for an eye only leads to more blindness”! Many in the academic community remain “blind” to OA issues and are often constrained in taking action by historical practices, and more importantly by reward systems, both perceived and real. They thus occupy the academic institutional “country of the blind”. Informed institutional leadership, combined with vibrant advocacy programmes and enhanced reward systems, is required for relevant eyes to be opened to the nature and benefits of OA. Institutions now have the chance to accelerate the OA scholarly communication process. Such “action does not require total agreement with the OA movement's beliefs and proposals, but it requires an active engagement with them.”(Bailey, 2005) This “engagement” with individual researchers in institutions will be the key to scholarly communication change

Open Access is Broken: What Can Be Done?

The idea of “Open Access” (hereafter OA) emerged in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s with a noble goal: to provide comprehensive access to the scholarly literature for everyone around the world by making the results of scholarly research freely and immediately available online to all. After more than 20 years of OA advocacy and development, where do things stand? Has the noble goal of universal access been realized, and is the scholarly literature now accessible and open to the global community of scholars? How strong is the current OA movement and where is it headed? While significant advances have been made, to be sure, the fact is that elements of OA have taken a wrong turn somewhere, resulting in a system that is broken and has not lived up to its promise. Early OA efforts focused on the need for better access to read and reuse scholarly literature. While significant advancement has been made in this area, it has created another barrier to the free and open sharing of scholarly research–access for authors to publish their research. This is especially problematic for those without the means or support to participate in the “pay to publish” model of OA that has become dominant. There is still hope to correct this imbalance, but the scholarly community must refocus and recalibrate its efforts to get back on track

A Matter of Discipline: Open Access, the Humanities, and Art History

Recent events suggest that open access has gained new momentum in the humanities, but the slow and uneven development of open-access initiatives in humanist fields continues to hinder the consolidation of efforts across the university. Although various studies have traced the general origins of the humanities’ reticence to embrace open access, few have actually considered the scholarly practices and disciplinary priorities that shape a discipline’s adoption of its principles. This article examines the emergence, potential and actualized, of open access in art history. Part case study, part conceptual mapping, the discussion is framed within the context of three interlocking dynamics: the present state of academic publishing in art history; the dominance of the journal and self-archiving repository within open-access models of scholarly production; and the unique roles played by copyright and permissions in art historical scholarship. It is hoped that tracing the discipline-specific configuration of research provides a first step toward both investigating the identity that open access might assume within the humanities, from discipline to discipline, and explaining how and why it might allow scholars to better serve themselves and their audiences.  Le mouvement en faveur de l’accès libre, si l’on en croit divers événements récents, semble voir son progrès s’accélérer dans les sciences humaines. Cependant, le développement des initiatives soutenant l’accès libre dans les disciplines humanistes continue d’être lent et inégal tout en retardant la consolidation des efforts panuniversitaires. Certaines études ont bien identifié les origines générales des réticences exprimées par les humanistes à l’égard de l’accès libre, mais peu se sont penchées sur les pratiques de la recherche et les priorités qui informent le processus d’adoption l’accès libre par une discipline particulière. Cet article étudie comment l’histoire de l’art a vu l’accès libre émerger d’abord comme une potentialité pour en devenir une réalité. D’une part, étude de cas, d’autre part, problématisation théorique, cet article structure son argument autour de trois dynamiques inter-reliées : l’état présent de la publication savante en histoire de l’art ; le rôle dominant, dans les modèles de production associés à l’accès libre, de la revue savante et des archives ouvertes avec auto-archivage ; et, les rôles spécifi ques joués par les questions de droits d’auteur et de permissions en histoire de l’art. En retraçant les contours spécifiques de la recherche dans une discipline donnée, cet auteur espère ouvrir une piste permettant de comprendre quelle forme identifiable l’accès libre pourrait adopter dans le contexte des humanités, discipline par discipline. De cette façon, il devrait être possible d’expliquer comment les chercheurs dans ces domaines pourraient, grâce à l’accès libre, mieux s’entraider et mieux servir leurs lecteurs

‘Is the library open?’: Correlating unaffiliated access to academic libraries with open access support

© 2019, Igitur, Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services. All rights reserved. In the context of a growing international focus on open access publishing options and mandates, this paper explores the extent to which the ideals of ‘openness’ are also being applied to physical knowledge resources and research spaces. This study, which forms part of the larger Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative project, investigates the relationship between academic library access policies and institutional positions on open access or open science publishing. Analysis of library access policies and related documents from twenty academic institutions in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Africa and the United Kingdom shows that physical access to libraries for members of the public who are not affiliated with a university is often the most restricted category of access. Many libraries impose financial and sometimes security barriers on entry to buildings, limiting access to collections in print and other non-digital formats. The limits placed on physical access to libraries contrast strongly with the central role that these institutions play in facilitating open access in digital form for research outputs through institutional repositories and open access publishing policies. We compared library access policies and practices with open access publishing and research sharing policies for the same institutions and found limited correlation between both sets of policies. Comparing the two assessments using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient confirmed open access policies have a direct association with the narrow aspects of public access provided through online availability of formal publications, but are not necessarily associated (in the universities in this study) with delivering on a broader commitment to public access to knowledge. The results suggest that while institutional mission statements and academic library policies may refer to sharing of knowledge and research and community collaboration, multiple layers of library user categories, levels of privilege and fees charged can inhibit the realisation of these goals. As open access publishing options and mandates expand, physical entry to academic libraries and access to print and electronic resources has contracted. This varies within and across countries, but it conflicts with global library and information commitments to open access to knowledge

An ‘academic’ dilemma: the tale of archives and records management

This article discusses the development of academic research in the archives and records management field. It is argued that the field has faced a dilemma between educating graduates for work in a professional domain and developing robust research methods and frameworks for the emerging academic discipline. The article reports on some projects which have developed research frameworks and networks in the UK and internationally and considers some future directions for archives and records management research. In the light of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, and in preparation for the Research Excellence Framework 2014, this is a good time to take stock of the progress made in this sub field of LIS and map its future strategic direction