What difference to the sustainability of open access can (a donor like) DFID make? Matthew Harvey,...

What difference to the sustainability of open access can (a donor like)

DFID make?

Matthew Harvey, UK Department for International Development (DFID)

Contact: [email protected]

What difference to the sustainability of open access can (a donor like) DFID make?

1. Background to DFID and our interest in research and evidence

2. DFID and OA so far, focusing on DFID’s OA policy

3. DFID and the sustainability of OA into the future

1. DFID and research evidence

•Activities framed by the MDGs•Work directly in 27 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East

•Results focused•Increasingly evidence informed•Want to use the best available evidence in our policies and programmes

DFID’s Research and Evidence Division (RED)

•£222m ($357m) in 2011-12 and rising spent on centrally commissioned research through RED

•Research is also commissioned through DFID country offices and policy departments

Allocation of RED research budget by theme (2009-2011)

Human development 32%

Agriculture 27%

Climate and Environment12%

Governance, conflict,social development 10%

Research uptake 8%

Growth 5%

Other 6%

RED’s mission

• Identify and generate the best evidence, knowledge, technology and ideas to improve the effectiveness of development

• Convey these to inform and influence policy, programmes and practice for poverty reduction

• Both those of DFID and everyone else (global public good)• But for our activities to be properly evidence informed, we

require access to the total evidence base• We also find ourselves on the wrong side of the access

barrier!

2. DFID and open access so far …

• Some programmes address some facets of open access–PERii (Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information) run

by INASP– e.g. Journals Online; repository development; inclusion and

visibility of developing countries within the open access community; bandwidth management training

–MK4D open access advocacy programme– e.g. case studies on Brazil, South Africa and India to be published

soon; webinar: ‘Open Access: are Southern voices being stifled?’

• DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy

DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy

•Launched in July 2012, effective from 1 November•Open access: irrevocable and free online access by any user worldwide to full-text/full version scientific and scholarly material

•Enhanced access: steps taken to help users find, view and download materials

The primary objectives are to:

• increase the number of research outputs that are open access

• increase information to help locate research outputs

• increase the accessibility of outputs

Some key features:

• Access and accessibility• ‘Outputs’: journal articles, reports, books and book chapters,

datasets, multi-media, websites, software, …• Access and Data Management Plan required for all projects• Associated costs included in research budget• Preference for gold over green OA• Self-archive within 6 months• Deposit datasets in an open access repository within 12

months of final data collection• DFID institutional repository: R4D (www.dfid.gov.uk/R4D/)

3. What next for DFID?

•Basic choices:1. Service our own policy (e.g. develop it, work on

compliance)

2. + get involved in UK domestic and cross-government discussion

3. +/or get involved in international discussion

4. +/or develop a DFID OA strategy and associated activities that consider OA as an issue in its own right

#4 is (perhaps) the obvious choice for maximum support to OA and OA sustainability

A DFID OA strategy and associated activities framed by sustainability?

•OA is sustainable when:

the ideal of open access is met, and the new system endures, not slipping back to the (more closed) current or past situation, or collapsing entirely •At what point in the entire system could and should DFID intervene to support OA sustainability?

Limiting conditions:

•OA not an end in itself•Continued interest requires demonstrable/plausible impact on poverty reduction

•Budget (up to, say, a few million US$?)•DFID staff (say, 25% of a person?)

•So, what to do?

Points of engagement in the system:

Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access of what

Local Individual Publications

National Local institution Data

Regional National institutions Knowledge

International International institutions OERs

IT infrastructure

Each combination lends itself to a different type of activity• Capacity building• Convening• Bank-rolling (e.g journals,

repositories, APCs)• Seed-funding to users or

providers to stimulate market • Awareness raising• Debating, discussing,

lobbying

• Policy/regulation development

• Research (e.g. on impacts, best practice, business models, …)

• ICT infrastructure building• …

What difference to the sustainability of open access can (a donor like) DFID make?

• So what to do? • What criteria should be applied to all these options in order to

prioritise them?• How can we assess the actual or likely impact of all the

options?• Ideas gratefully received!

What difference to the sustainability of open access can (a donor like) DFID make? Matthew Harvey,...

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