1. Open Access & Nottingham eTheses & ePrints Postgraduate Publishing Workshop Gareth J Johnson, SHERPA, IS [email_address] University of Nottingham, November 2006

2. 1) Introduction

• Talk will cover

• Traditional publishing barriers to getting your publications read

• How to improve your readership & professional standing

• Some options to help here at Nottingham

3. 2) Barriers

• Ever tried getting hold of an international thesis?

• Does everyone have access to the same journals?

• To ensure that your work is read not enough to just submit/publish

• Publishing and indexing timescales are considerable

4. 3) Publishing Barriers

• Research is publicly funded

• • Personal academic efforts

• • Supported by institutions

• Authors sign away rights with publishers in order to publish

• • Given away freely to publishers

• • Publishers make huge proit$

• Author gets no tangible reward

• • And loses rights to copy material for colleagues, teaching etc

• • Institution potentially loses out on its investment

5. 4) Cost Barriers

• Not all libraries can subscribe to all journals

• During the period 1998-2003

• • RPI +11%

• • Journal +58%

• • Library budgets -29%

• Increasing prices decrease effective readership

• • Even in the affluent West

• • Nottingham pays between 30-9k/journal

6. 5) Routes to Read

• Read online journals

• • Most subscription only

• • Cost the University just as much

• • Personal subscriptions never enough

• Obtain material physically

• • Tricky for overseas material

• • Variable or uncertain timescales

• • Cost can be a problem

7. 6) Routes to being Read?

• Mount texts on your own site?

• How retrievable?

• • Lower Google rankings for personal sites

• Long term availability

• • What happens in 5-10 years?

• • Will the format still be accessible

• Is it legal?

• • Are you breaching your agreement with the publisher

8. 7) Open Access

• Frees research for the good of humanity

• Deposition of research into repositories

• • Electronic versions of any research publication

• Freely available online - no subscription to read

• • A particular constituency can donate

• Timely & rapid communication of ideas

• Sustainability built in

• • Material available for years to come

• • Repositories ensuring continued format accessibility

• Funders

• • Compliance with OA now mandated by some research funders and boards

9. 8) Legality

• Who allows it?

• • >90% of journals or 75% of publishers

• Conditions or restrictions

• • Conditions allow deposition provided rules followed

• • • E.g. Not publishers version, pre/post print only

• • Restrictions stop immediate deposition

• • • E.g. Embargos (6 months-2 years commonly)

• Open Access Publishing

• • Peer reviewed titles with NO copyright transfer

• • See the DOAJ for over 2000 globally

• Tools to help

• • SHERPA/RoMEO

• • • Guide to variations between publishers

• • SHERPA/JULIET

• • • Guide to Research Funder requirements

10. 9) Advantages

• Wider global readership

• • Citations are the life blood of an academic career.

• Which means

• • Improved citation rankings

• • Faster communication

• • Improved long term preservation

• • Decreased potential plagiarism

• All leads to better:

• • Personal & professional standing

• • Departmental & Institutional respect/promotion

11. 10) Disadvantages

• OA self-archiving not always possible

• • Restrictions from stakeholders & sponsors

• • Rejection risk

• • Ethical or commercial sensitivity

• Dont take risks with your publishing!

• • Can always revisit post-publication

• • Publishers can change policies

12. 11) Nottingham repositories

• Two repositories at Nottingham

• • Nottingham ePrints

• • Nottingham eTheses

• Easy to use

• • Submission takes 10 minutes

• • Registration 1 st time only

• Small but growing collection

• • Already high on search engine rankings

• • OpenDOAR service searches

13. 12) Hints & Tips

• Save electronic copies of your publications

• • Early versions as well as final

• • Allows you to choose which version to deposit

• DO put your thesis into NETheses & papers into NEP

• Do read and submit to Open Access journals

• DONT be afraid to ask for advice