open access: what it can do for science and scholarship in africa alma swan key perspectives ltd...

Open Access: What it can do for science and scholarship in

Africa

Alma Swan

Key Perspectives Ltd

Truro, UK

The communication of science

Opens eyes of the world to African science

Flow of ideas Generation of ideas New collaborations BRICs/technology transfer


‘Old’ paradigms

Using proxy measures of an individual scientist’s merit

It is a journal’s responsibility to disseminate your work

Printed article is the format of record Other scientists have time to find out what

you want them to know


‘New’ paradigms

Rich, deep, broad metrics for measuring the contributions of individuals scientists

Effective dissemination of your work is now in your hands (at last)

The digital format will be the format of record (is already in many areas)

Unless you routinely publish in Nature or Science, ‘getting it out there’ is up to you


What Open Access is about

Freely available Publicly available Permanently available


The World Wide Web has enabled Open Access to science

Not constrained by the limitations of print on paper

Available to any individual with Internet access, worldwide

With proper arrangements in place, availability is permanent


What Open Access is not about

NOT vanity publishing or self-publishing

NOT about non-peer-reviewed literature

NOT about publications that scientists expect to be paid for (e.g. books)


Who benefits from Open Access?

Scientists – as authors Scientists – as readers Scientists – as teachers Universities Research funders Taxpayers and society at large Publishers


Why researchers publish their work

0 20 40 60 80 100

% respondents

Communicate results to peers

Advance career

Personal prestige

Gain funding

Financial reward


‘Open Access’?

A much better term to use is

Open Dissemination


Increased citation rates

Biology 36%

Psychology108% Sociology 172% Health sci 57% Political Sci 57% Physics

250%

Economics 49% Education 77% Law 108% Business

76% Management

92%


(Courtesy of Stevan Harnad and co-workers)

Open Access increases citations

0 50 100 150 200 250

% increase in citations with Open Access

BiologyEconomics

Political SciHealth SciBusiness

EducationManagement

LawPsychology

SociologyPhysics


Range = 50%-200%(Courtesy Stevan Harnad and co-workers)

Lost citations, lost impact

Average 50% increase in citations with OA Only around 15% of research is Open

Access…. ….. so 85% is not ….. and we are therefore losing 85% of

the 50% increase in citations (conservative end of the range) that Open Access brings (= 42.5%)


What this means for African science

In 2005, there were 9671 articles listed in the Web of Science (ISI Science Citation Index)

And 4001 citations to them so far With Open Access (+42.5% more citations) There could have been 1700 more

citations by mid-February 2006 (5701 total)


There is also a monetary measure

With an S&T budget of 157 million USD

for ’06-’10 (NEPAD’s budget)

…and 42.5% of impact lost

…that means a loss of 67 million USD-

worth of impact to African economies

over the next 5 years


Two ways to provide Open Access

Publish in an Open Access journal

Deposit copies of published articles in an Open Access repository (‘self-archiving’)


Open Access journals

‘New’ Open Access publishers BioMedCentral Public Library of Science c2000 Open Access journals in existence

‘Traditional’ publishers offering a hybrid publishing model


Self-archiving

Subject-centred repositories (e.g. arXiv) Institutional repositories

Subject coverage reflects institution Interoperable (Open Archives Initiative-

compliant) Global interlinked network – a

worldwide database of research


Open Access repositories

550+ worldwide Open source software

(e.g. EPrints from Southampton University)


Why an institutional repository?

Fulfils a university’s mission to engender, encourage and disseminate scholarly work

Enables a university to compile a complete record of its intellectual effort

Forms a permanent record of all digital output from an institution

Enables standardised online CVs for all researchers (e.g. RAE exercise)

‘Marketing’ tool for universities An institution can mandate self-archiving across

all subject areas


CERN preprint archive


How are the authors responding?

24% have submitted an article to an Open Access journal (49% intend to)

22% have deposited an article in an Open Access institutional repository

15% have deposited an article in a subject-based Open Access repository


What can encourage self-archiving?

Highlighting the increased visibility and impact


What can encourage self-archiving?

Highlighting the increased visibility and impact

Requiring authors to self-archive


Author readiness to comply with a mandate

0 20 40 60 80 100

% respondents

Would complywillingly

Would complyreluctantly

Would notcomply

81%

14%

5%


% of DEST output

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%

2004 2005

Key Perspectives Ltd(Australian data courtesy of Arthur Sale)

University of Tasmania

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University of Queensland

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Developments around the world

Australian Govt funds nationwide network of repositories to make Australian science more visible

French funding bodies set up OA archives All German universities now have a

repository Netherlands has a nationwide ‘Cream of

Science’ initiative


The developing world…

Brazil is well ahead India is moving fast China now developing a policy Pakistan has built its first

national repository


Other drivers for Open Access

Data sharing stipulations E-science Interdisciplinary research Scientometrics


There are many more measures…

Bibliometric measures: Co-citations Hub/authority counts Incest analysis

Impact measures: Citation growth, longevity, latency-to-peak Download growth, longevity, latency-to-peak Etc, etc, etc


Effective ways to achieve OA in Africa Encourage authors to use OA journals

where appropriate Build archives Teach them how to deposit (do it for

them if necessary) Advocate: tell authors the advantages Reassure: the consequences are not

disastrous Insist they do it (impose a mandate)


Wellcome Trust:

World’s largest private funder of biomedical (and allied) research

Spends c£400 million per annum


The Wellcome Trust policy on OA

Requires self-archiving of articles

Will pay publication fees for

publishing in open access journals

(1-2% of Wellcome’s total research

expenditure)


“Just funding the research is a job only part done. A fundamental part of [our] mission is to ensure the widest possible dissemination and unrestricted access to that research.”

Robert TerrySenior Policy Advisor, Wellcome Trust


[email protected]

www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/


Thank you for listening

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/

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