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
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‘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
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‘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
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What Open Access is about
Freely available Publicly available Permanently available
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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
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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)
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Who benefits from Open Access?
Scientists – as authors Scientists – as readers Scientists – as teachers Universities Research funders Taxpayers and society at large Publishers
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Why researchers publish their work
0 20 40 60 80 100
% respondents
Communicate results to peers
Advance career
Personal prestige
Gain funding
Financial reward
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‘Open Access’?
A much better term to use is
Open Dissemination
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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%
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(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
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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%)
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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)
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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
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Two ways to provide Open Access
Publish in an Open Access journal
Deposit copies of published articles in an Open Access repository (‘self-archiving’)
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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
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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
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Open Access repositories
550+ worldwide Open source software
(e.g. EPrints from Southampton University)
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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
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CERN preprint archive
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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
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What can encourage self-archiving?
Highlighting the increased visibility and impact
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What can encourage self-archiving?
Highlighting the increased visibility and impact
Requiring authors to self-archive
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Author readiness to comply with a mandate
0 20 40 60 80 100
% respondents
Would complywillingly
Would complyreluctantly
Would notcomply
81%
14%
5%
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% 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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Key Perspectives Ltd(Australian data courtesy of Arthur Sale)
University of Queensland
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Key Perspectives Ltd(Australian data courtesy of Arthur Sale)
Queensland University of Technology
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Key Perspectives Ltd(Australian data courtesy of Arthur Sale)
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
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The developing world…
Brazil is well ahead India is moving fast China now developing a policy Pakistan has built its first
national repository
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Other drivers for Open Access
Data sharing stipulations E-science Interdisciplinary research Scientometrics
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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
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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)
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Wellcome Trust:
World’s largest private funder of biomedical (and allied) research
Spends c£400 million per annum
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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)
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“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
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www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/
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Thank you for listening
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