1
Green Open AccessExplained to non-scientists.
Daniel Graziotin,
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Abstract: When research articles are accepted for publication, researchers usually transfer their
copyright to the publishers. Consequently, publishers own research articles and can impose
expensive paywalls to institutions and single individuals. Scientific knowledge gets hindered by
those who should spread it. However, many are not aware of the right to self-archive preprints and
postprints of a paper. This presentation, delivered at SFScon13, is aimed to practitioners and
politicians. It explains how scientific knowledge is produced and how traditional publishing system
hinders it instead of spreading it. It reports the status of green Open Access adoption at the Faculty
of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (N=49). It infers that green Open Access
adoption is limited by a lack of tools to support the process of self-archiving, and by a still great
misinformation. Finally, it presents the Web tool rchiveit, developed to spread the adoption of green
Open Access.
Cite it: D. Graziotin, “Green Open Access explained to non-scientists”, 13th International South Tyrol Free
Software Conference (SFSCon 2013), 2013. Invited Talk. DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.848611. (Open Access)
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Green Open AccessA first step to free up scientific knowledge
Daniel Graziotin, <[email protected]>
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
2013-11-15
3
Scientific knowledge is not freeHow it works, how it is hindered, green Open Access
The status of green Open AccessCase Study: Faculty of Computer Science, FUB
Our ContributionsTowards a free, Open Science
1
2
3
4
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
5
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research Report
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
‣ Paper
‣ Rules
‣ Select Venue
6
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research Report Validate
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
‣ Paper
‣ Rules
‣ Select Venue
‣ Peer Review
‣ Editor
‣ Reviewers
‣ Decision
7
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research Report Validate Publish
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
‣ Paper
‣ Rules
‣ Select Venue
‣ Peer Review
‣ Editor
‣ Reviewers
‣ Decision
‣ Production
‣ Typesetting
‣ “Look cool”
‣ Dissemination
8
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research KnowledgeReport Validate Publish
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
‣ Paper
‣ Rules
‣ Select Venue
‣ Peer Review
‣ Editor
‣ Reviewers
‣ Decision
‣ Production
‣ Typesetting
‣ “Look cool”
‣ Dissemination
‣ Readers
‣ Acquire
Knowledge
‣ Theoretical
Implications
‣ Practical
Implications
9
Scientific KnowledgeA simple model
Research KnowledgeReport Validate Publish
‣ Acquire
knowledge
‣ Theory (question)
‣ “Experiment”
‣ Analyze
‣ Answer
‣ Paper
‣ Rules
‣ Select Venue
‣ Peer Review
‣ Editor
‣ Reviewers
‣ Decision
‣ Production
‣ Typesetting
‣ “Look cool”
‣ Dissemination
‣ Readers
‣ Acquire
Knowledge
‣ Theoretical
Implications
‣ Practical
Implications
14
‣ Individuals
• On average, $30 + VAT
• Can become ridiculous
Price for accessing an article?
= 30,00 € for 4 pages= 7,50 € / page
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‣ Institutions, Libraries
• We do not know
• Non-disclosure agreements
• However, estimated revenue to the
industry: $5333 per article1
Price for accessing an article?
[1] http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/12/19/taylor-cost-publish-gold-open-access/
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Where does revenue go?
0100
Authors
Institution
Publisher
All to the publisherFew of them invest in research association
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Never-ending costs of research.
Once: realize research.
Forever: access research results.
Can we stop this, limiting the costs?
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Self-archiving – green Open Access
‣ When researchers make publicly available copies of
preprints and postprints
• On their personal website (worst case)
• On a university repository
• On a (multi)disciplinary repository
‣ Legal
• Granted in Copyright Transfer Agreements of most
publishers
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(green) Open Access fosters innovation
Next two slides are taken from “Three arguments for open access”, Mike Taylor,
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol
“I soon learned that many of the
papers I was interested in reading
were hidden behind expensive
pay walls. I convinced my mom to
use her credit card for a few [...]
and I learned to try different ways
of circumventing the pay walls.”
— Jack Andraka.
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Scientific knowledge is not freeHow it works, how it is hindered, green Open Access
The status of green Open AccessCase Study: Faculty of Computer Science, FUB
Our ContributionsTowards a free, Open Science
1
2
3
34
Status of green Open AccessThe case of the Faculty of Computer Science,
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
35
The study
‣ Web questionnaire
• Invited: 66
- PhD Students
- Researchers
- Professors
• Participated: 49
• 75% Faculty
36
Participant Roles
6.1
38.8 38.8
16.3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Other PhD Student Reseacher Professor
% of answers
N=49 participants
37
Number of publicationsApproximately, how many peer-reviewed, published
papers are you listed as an author of?
38
Number of publications
67.4
12.220.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
< 20 <= 20 and >= 50 > 50
% of answers
41
Awareness of self-archiving artifactsCan you clearly differentiate the terms "preprint",
"postprint", and "publisher PDF"?
44
Awareness of self-archiving allowanceDid you know that the major publishers in
Computer Science1 allow you to self-archive at
least the preprints of a research article?
[1] ACM, IEEE, INFORMS, Elsevier, ME Sharpe, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Verlag, John
Wiley and Sons
46
Self-archiving frequencyWith respect to your previous publications, how
often have you self-archived the preprint, the
postprint, and the publisher PDF?
47
Self-archiving Frequency
‣ % of answers
Preprint Postprint Publisher PDF
72.7
18.2
9.1
0
50
100
61.3
20.5 18.2
0
50
100
63.6
15.9 18.2
0
50
100
48
Self-archiving placementWith respect to your previous publications, where
have you self-archived?
49
Self-archiving Placement
‣ % of answers
Personal / Academic
WebsiteInstitutional Repository (multi)disciplinary Repository
50
13.6
36.4
0
50
100
75
15.99.1
0
50
100
75
22.7
2.3
0
50
100
51
Self-archiving inhibitors‣ Lack of process support (51%)
• Time consuming (23%)
- Too busy
• Laziness (18%)
- Not wanting to just start
• Lack of tools (10%)
- Help needed in managing the process
- Help needed in understanding the rules
- Lack of automation
52
Self-archiving inhibitors
‣ Misunderstanding / Misinformation (44%)
• Afraid of breaking the rules (18%)
- Violating publisher rules
- Violating someone’s copyright
• Why should I? (10%)
- Lack in understanding that access to articles is not universal
- Lack in understanding that postprint is the final article
- Carelessness
53
Self-archiving inhibitors
‣ Misunderstanding / Misinformation (44%) (cont.)
• Did not know before (8%)
• Afraid of plagiarism (8%)
‣ Other (5%)
• Not proud of previous work
• Want to hide my research
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Scientific knowledge is not freeHow it works, how it is hindered, green Open Access
The status of green Open AccessCase Study: Faculty of Computer Science, FUB
Our ContributionsTowards a free, Open Science
1
2
3
55
Our contribution
‣ Inference from case study and personal experience
• Misunderstanding / Misinformation
• Lack of process support
Reaction
‣ Advocating
‣ rchiveit
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Our contribution
‣ A Web tool, http://rchive.it
‣ Responsive (smartphone and tablet friendly)
‣ Open Source (BSD 3-Clause License)
‣ Mission
• Create awareness
• Spread practice
Of green Open Access
‣ Provide immediate, minimal info on author rights
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Our contribution
1. Scientists input the name of a scientific venue
• Journal name
• Publisher name
• ISSN number
2. The system fetches the info from SHERPA/RoMEO
3. The system displays the essential, relevant info
• 4 + 1 View of green Open Access
4. Scientists learn, and react
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Should we stop here?
‣ Tools to automate self-archiving
‣ Collaboration with the Library
‣ Collaboration with politics
‣ Incentives for Open Access
• Green, Gold, and Hybrid
‣ Absolutely not!
63
Should we stop here?
‣ Open Data
‣ Publishing research outputs
‣ Making software citable
‣ Publishing negative results
‣ Absolutely not!
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We [..] are all well aware that [..] scientific publications are often
not considered [..] as the physical carriers of new scientific
knowledge [..] but as goods that are placed on the market in order
to be bought and sold.
The more of these goods you are able to sell, the more you can
count on funds for your lab/institution and research activity, as
well as on new personal career possibility [..]
One survey response
67
Picture sourcesMad Scientist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mad_scientist.svg
Angry kid writing http://bestdelegate.com/a-formula-for-the-perfect-position-paper-solution-oriented-research/
Peer Review http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/2012/02/open-peer-review-of-our-arseniclife.html
Article http://www.nuove-notizie.com/internet/4581/martview-lettore-di-ebook-pdf-ma-solo.html
Knowledge http://pro-act.org/profiles/blogs/advocacy-and-knowledge-management-empowering-building-capacity-
of
Scientists http://femalecomputerscientist.blogspot.it/2012_07_01_archive.html
Journalist http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/2012/10/24/lessons-for-the-young-libertarian-journalist/
Students http://sitemaker.umich.edu/finalwolfman.356/graduation
Industry http://www.clker.com/clipart-industrial.html
Wall http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/jan/17/open-access-publishing-science-paywall-immoral
Wall http://www.photos-public-domain.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/gray-brick-wall-texture.jpg
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