Jisc
Open Access Week every week?
Has the UK’s open access movement now reached a Mafalda Picarra Project Officer (PASTEUR4OA), Jisc Neil Jacobs Head of Scholarly Communications Support Jisc Libraries are frequently at the mercy of radically changing policy, and nowhere is this more salient right now than in the world of academic research output. As everyone working in UK research knows, the funding councils have said that from April 2016, all research outputs must be available in open access (OA) if they are to be eligible for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). But what does this mean for university libraries? Libraries will need to assess how this affects their approach to access to resources alongside the many other disparate methods of resource provision for their students in a seamless and intuitive way. The move to OA involves the whole scholarly communications infrastructure in which librarians play a central role, so they need to be involved in any conversations such as those about journal subscriptions and managing costs.
Jisc’s Neil Jacobs and Mafalda Picarra suggest that universities and their libraries need to come together to decide now on a robust and practical response to ensure compliance with the post-2014 REF OA policy.
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Certainly, some have been taking steps towards implementation of the post-2014 REF OA policy; back in the summer Jisc commissioned a review1 to assess institutional readiness. And even without the funding councils’ deadline to focus on, the UK’s higher education sector now has access to a wide range of resources and tools to help it make important strides towards full open access and all the benefits that this will bring, both to research and to the wider UK economy.
Longer term, library staff in many universities are perhaps more likely to provide expert advice and support in the process.
Different approaches
Making open access simpler
Returning to the funding councils’ requirements for a moment – from April 2016, research outputs will be eligible for the REF if they have been placed in an institutional repository with accompanying metadata at the point of acceptance for publication, and then made openly available after any embargo period. If this is not possible for any reason, application must be made for an exemption. Many universities are likely to decide that all research outputs should be managed in this way so that researchers are able later to identify their four best ones for submission to the REF.
Greater simplicity would also be extremely helpful.
It is a significant change to current working practices so it is not surprising that some institutions choose not to rock the boat with academics. Often, their solution is to manage new processes on behalf of researchers, tasking library staff (usually) with handling the business of depositing research and metadata, and then managing embargo periods. Despite the intricate manoeuvring that this sometimes requires, it often works well while publication in OA is relatively rare – but will it be possible to scale up when activity increases and still keep core library operations running as well as they need to? In these times when library spending is often being cut it seems unlikely.
Panlibus Magazine | Issue 38 Winter 2015 | www.capita.co.uk/libraries
Other universities have decided on a different approach, making academics responsible for managing their own publications. But, in either case, institutions will need to provide clear leadership, workable policies, robust systems and good-quality training to ensure that people have the right knowledge and skills.
In the UK, the enthusiasm with which funders, research institutions and other stakeholders have embraced OA has created complications. According to the Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP)2, there are currently well over 100 open access policies in the UK, around 15% of the world’s total. Policies have been developed when things are changing rapidly and most have different requirements that make their details relatively different. As a result, researchers who work in collaboration with others, perhaps with funding from more than one source, can feel that they are working in a complex policy landscape. But, in the last few years, there have been important efforts to iron out the differences. In 2012, the European Commission (EC) recommended closer policy alignment. The funding councils’ OA policy is relatively aligned with the EC’s Horizon 2020 policy. What’s more, many universities are starting to devise ways to streamline their policies with those of major funders.