NWO Symposium Open Access: abstracts of the presentations

12 October 2010, Utrecht, the Netherlands (Geertekerk)

The symposium was organised in the Open Access week 2010 in the Netherlands which carried the motto 'The power of Open Access'. With this event NWO set out to raise awareness of Open Access publishing, to stress the importance of Open Access, and to offer information on how to start Open Access journals. The public came from various universities and other organizations.

There were two NWO speakers: Jos Engelen (President Governing Board NWO) and Ron Dekker (NWO director Institutes, Finance, Infrastructure); the other speakers were Saskia Franken (Utrecht University Library, manager Igitur), Chris Armbruster (Max Planck Digital Library, Berlin; Research Associate) and Derk Haank (CEO Springer, Doetinchem).

Programme

View the programme of the symposium.

Speakers

Ron Dekker (NWO) presented the NWO Open Access policy. Read the speech of Ron Dekker.

Abstract: NWO is the national funder of scientific research and its mission is to facilitate that Dutch academic research excels both nationally and internationally. NWO encourages that research results acquired with NWO subsidies are accessible to the public. NWO believes that research financed from public funds, must be freely accessible. Right now NWO considers Open Access to be the most effective method of obtaining such free access.
NWO realises that we are in a transition phase, between the 'ubscription' or 'toll access' model of publishing towards the 'open access' model. Apart from the fact that de 'green road' – depositing publications in repositories – is a good Open Access development, it may also be considered to be a transition towards the 'golden road': publishing articles in Open Access journals and Open Access monographies. The universities and the Dutch Royal Library take care of long term accessibility of publications deposited in university repositories, for instance through the Current Research Information System (CRIS).

The present NWO Open Access subsidy instruments are the Incentive Fund Open Access (opened in maart 2010, see the Subsidy Guide), a pilot in the Humanities for starting Open Access journals (closed on 1 October 2010), and a call for proposals for all disciplines served by NWO for starting Open Access journals (to be opened in 2011). And NWO co-finances the OAPEN project ( www.oapen.org ) for the Open Access publishing of books.

Open access of research data is more complex, both technically and in law. NWO collaborates with the institute DANS (Data Archiving and Networking Services) for the development of a policy for Open Access of data.

Saskia Franken (Igitur, UU) discussed the question why university librares would occupy themselves with Open Access at all, and described actions needed to realize Open Access View the powerpoint presentation of Saskia Franken.
Abstract: With costs and prizes of journal subscriptions and a rising number of digital journals, a university library must keep access to scientific information. Six actions were illustrated that institutes need to take in order to realise Open Access. After having referred to the Berlin Declaration she described starting an institutional repository, introducing the mandate that researchers deposit in the repository, making Open Access publications visible in the digital catalogue, formulating an Open Access policy of that organisation, formulating a policy of Intellectual Property Rights, and becoming an Open Access publisher themselves. This last, sixth, action she illustrated with Igitur, Utrecht Publishing & Archiving services at the University of Utrecht.

Finally she described the developing role of university libraries. In the past, libraries were importers of knowledge, in the sense that they bought journals subscriptions and offered them to be used by students and researchers. At present the library role is rather an exporter of knowledge, in the sense that they are active in stimulating researchers to publish their knowledge Open Access and distributing scientifc knowledge as widely as possible while adhering to quality standards.

Chris Armbruster (Max Planck Digital Library, Berlin; Research associate) spoke about Open Access policy implementation. View the powerpoint presentation of Chris Armbruster.

Abstract: The implementation of Open Access has to do with various aspects of, for instance, policy, business, and with changes in framework, in attitudes and in behaviour of readers and authors. He illustrated the experiences in the Max Planck Gesellschaft with eSciDc (eScience with infrastructure), Living Reviews (a new type of review journal), and European Cultural Heritage Online (infrastructure for various types of data). He referred to policy and political structures such as the Berlin Conference, OA publishing deals and the Allianz initiative which is a form of coordinated policy development on various aspects of Open Access.

Then he elaborated on the two-year EU-project called SOAP (Study on Open Access Publishing). One outcome, for instance, is that 55% of the Open Access journals are issued by publishers who only publish that single journal while 13% of the Open Access journals are being published by publishers issuing more than 50 journals. Another outcome is that a vast majority of all researchers think that Open Access journals would be beneficial. Researchers in astronomy, engineering, chemistry and management appear to publish in Open Access journals least frequently.

Another EU-project that Armbruster presented was called PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research; for detailed information of this five-year project see www.peerproject.eu).

His publication on this same topic appeared only a few days after the NWO symposium. It is entitled Implementing Open Access: policy case studies see www.ssrn.com/abstract=1685855.

Derk Haank (CEO Springer) explained the various flavors of Open Access at publisher Springer. View the powerpoint presentation of Derk Haank.

Abstract: Derk Haank explained the various flavors of Open Access at Springer. Authors are allowed to self-archive the accepted version of their manuscript, and to deposit articles into PubMed Central. The phenomenon of Hybrid journal titles - Springer Open Choice - is very common, which means that authors may buy their articles free for Open Access once they have appeared in regular journals. The articles are immediately freely available, the copyright remains with the author; the articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution. Haank also elaborated on the experimental agreements with a few selected institutions in among others the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Open Choice fee per article has been based on the historic turnover  and (production) costs per article. Springer has analysed the uptake of hybrid journals across all disciplines and has compared this with the total number of articles published across disciplines. Open Access has been taken up in all disciplines; authors from medicine, and biomedical and life sciences seem to be slightly more interested than other authors.

In 2008 Springer acquired BioMed Central, which makes Springer the world's largest open access publisher according to Peter Suber (in the recent past Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College, Indiana, USA, who is a leading Open Access activist).

The 'golden road' also applies to Springer; here it is called Springer Open. Considering three big Open Access publishers the growth of Open Access is impressive. A tentative estimate has been made for future growth of Open Access by Springer. The Springer conclusion is that Open Access will not disappear yet become a complementary business model next to the well established traditional subscription model.

Jos Engelen (NWO, Governing Board) explained the NWO outlook on Open Access. Read the speech of Jos Engelen.

Abstract: With regard to quality there is no difference between the traditional journals and Open Access journals. In science a critical peer review system of top level researchers is the standard, also in Open Access. A publisher must secure quality control, quality assurance and long term availability.

The crucial feature of Open Access publishing is its business model. For Open Access the model is that costs are borne by the research budget of the scientist and not by subscription fees.

The transiton to Open Access publishing is tedious. Scientists are conservative and they do not want to spend research time on looking or novel way to publish their results. But the granting organizations also force them into conservatism. For instance when 'measuring' the quality of a research proposal they measure the past performance of the researcher by means of meta-science using impact factors of journals, the Hirsch index, and analyses of citation scores.

We should be more creative. We could for instance give a new Open Access journal an impact factor immediately at the start. That factor could be composed by indicators of the quality of the publishing process and the reputation of the editor and his editorial board. With such approach the quality of starting new Open Access journals could be compared with traditional, toll-access journals.

Jos Engelen added the idea that NWO might subsidize sessions specifically on Open Access in scientific conferences. It is crucial that the established publishers take part in the Open Access process, just as for instance the 'learned societies' and other publishers who do not need to worry about any share-holders value.

New specialized search engines could be developed – when all scientifc publications are quality controlled Open Access – to search for, and to combine knowledge across, academic disciplines.

In 2011 NWO will organize a call for proposals for starting new Open Access journals or for changing regular journals into Oen Access ones. For this call the NWO Governing Board has made one million euro available.

Open Access publishing must become accepted internationally. The European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) support the Open Access publishing model. Sooner or later – hopefully sooner − Open Access is going to become the standard way of publishing scientific research results.