Open Access and the Institutional Repository
Most tertiary institutions in the western world now have institutional repositories which provide open access to the research outputs of the institution's researchers. This movement has been growing for many years driven by the realisation that more and more research was being locked in increasingly expensive commercial journals. This is despite the fact that most of this research is publically funded and published by the researchers without payment.
What is an institutional repository?
What it is can be described, as is done on the home page and elsewhere in these pages, by what it does, but Cliff Lynch in 2003 provided a conceptual definition
... a university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members. It is most essentially an organizational commitment to the stewardship of these digital materials, including long-term preservation where appropriate, as well as organization and access or distribution.
Lynch, C., ARL Bimonthly Report 226
What is open access?
Open access publications and data are available free of charge to readers. Authors retain rights such as the Fair Use provisions of the Copyright Act. For a more detailed explanation the OakLaw project has provided a guide, "Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment". [Note this publication itself is delivered from an institutional repository.]
Funding bodies require open access
Increasingly those who fund research for the public good, governments and foundations in the main, are requiring that research funded by them should be accessible to the public.
Overseas for instance the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC) has mandated that all primary research data and research articles produced by ERC-funded researchers must be made available on open access.
Some universities also require their staff to make their publications available on open access. Harvard has been a leader in this regard.
In Australia in 2007 the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) called on researchers to make the results of research funded by the Australian Government publicly available, whenever possible and appropriate.
In addition the Government's Research Accessibility Framework (RAF) is intended to encourage the deposit of outputs from publicly funded research in publicly accessible repositories.
In 2008 as a result of the Cutler Inquiry further steps are being taken to implement open access in Australia.
Carr favours open access
INNOVATION Minister Kim Carr today will flag the possibility that researchers who win grants from public funding agencies will have to make their results freely available over the internet. "Australia may want to consider making its own competitive research grants conditional on recipients sharing their research results through open-access repositories," Senator Carr will say in a video address to the Open Access and Research conference in Brisbane. The Australian, Sept 24 2008
ARC Discovery Projects Funding Rules 2010
A1.3 Dissemination of Research Outputs
A1.3.1 The Australian Government makes a major investment in research to support its essential role in improving the wellbeing of our society. To maximise the benefits from research, findings need to be disseminated as broadly as possible to allow access by other researchers and the wider community.
A1.3.2 The ARC acknowledges that researchers take into account a wide range of factors in deciding on the best outlets for publications arising from their research. Such considerations include the status and reputation of a journal or publisher, the peer review process of evaluating their research outputs, access by other stakeholders to their work, the likely impact of their work on users of research and the further dissemination and production of knowledge. Taking heed of these considerations, the ARC endeavours to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the research supported under its funding, in the most effective manner and at the earliest opportunity.
A1.3.3 The ARC therefore encourages researchers to consider the benefits of depositing their data and any publications arising from a research project in an appropriate subject and/or institutional repository. If a researcher is not intending to deposit the data from a project in a repository within six months of the completion of the research, he/she should include the reasons in the project’s Final Report. Any research outputs that have been or will be deposited in appropriate repositories should be identified in the Final Report.
http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/DP10_FundingRules.pdf
What about the publishers of my articles?
Open access developments are not in opposition to commercial publishers who add many valuable services. The open access movement has been working with publishers to gain their agreement that the contents of the research should be made publically available while retaining the publisher's right to be reimbursed for the services they provide.
Major projects in the UK (ROMEO) and Australia (OakList) have been negotiating with publishers to gain their agreement to the deposit in institutional repositories of an appropriate version of the publication. The most common version held in open access repositories is the author's final version, after peer-review, but before the publisher does their final edit and layout. This is commonly known as the post-print or manuscript version.
Where possible the repository will make links directly to the publisher's version of the output as well for those who have access to it. Thus the publishers also gain wider exposure.
Advantages of Open Access for researchers
In addition to storing full text of research outputs the repository stores metadata describing the outputs. This metadata follows international standards and allows the exposure of the publications data to a range of tools such as Google and Open Archives Initiative sites such as the National Library of Australia. Hence research is exposed to the world and made accessible.
In providing an institutionally guaranteed "address", a repository will allow research outputs to be found even if researchers move or websites get reorganised.
By handling a wide range of data and file types the repository can assist in providing access to the data underlying publications providing benefits such as re-analysis and verification.
Advantages of Open Access for others
- Other researchers, students and the public can read the peer-reviewed literature for free.
- Researchers who are also lecturers can refer students to the literature without worrying about licences.
- Universities might be able to arrest the escalation of journal prices and enable libraries to buy more on limited budgets
- Universities can see better exposure of their output as a whole and gain some indication of how widely it is read
- Organisations who fund research can see their broader social goals being achieved.
- Organisations who fund research may see greater efficiencies as researchers collaborate and have a better view of the literature
- Publishers will see their articles better exposed and read