July 16, 2012

expert reaction to government/RCUK response to the Finch report on scientific publishing

The government announced plans to make publicly funded scientific research available for anyone to read for free by 2014, following publication of a report by Dame Janet Finch into academic publishing.

Statement from PLoS, said:

“PLoS strongly supports the new Research Councils UK policy and looks forward to its implementation. Removing subscription pay wall barriers accelerates the pace of discovery by enabling researchers, entrepreneurs, patients, teachers and members of the public to share, learn from, and build upon a collective body of scientific knowledge. We are especially pleased with the requirement that content must be available under the CC-BY license and carry no embargo if a publication fee was paid from Research Council funds. This will enable the public investment in UK research to most effectively support the governments wider innovation and industrial policy in a way that weaker licensing cannot. While PLoS favors the Gold OA route we believe the RCUK policy is both strong and flexible by acknowledging the importance of the repository route as a mechanism that will enable progress to wider access while constraining the costs of transition.”

Comment from Nature Publishing Group, said:

“Nature Publishing Group welcomes the UK Government’s acceptance of the detailed recommendations of the Finch Working Group. We are pleased that David Willetts highlights the “genuine value in academic publishing which has to be reflected”.‪

“We also welcome the Research Council UK’s (RCUK) announcement today that they will make centralised funding available to institutions for the payment of open access publication charges (APCs). NPG urges RCUK funding bodies to quickly clarify the process for allocating funds to UK institutions, so that they can establish procedures and make the transition towards gold open access as smooth as possible for funded researchers. NPG is committed to serving scientists and the advance of science and will therefore aim to collaborate closely with funders and institutions to achieve an orderly transition.‪‪

“NPG’s Scientific Reports is compliant with the RCUK policy on gold open access, which comes into effect in 2013. NPG’s existing self-archiving policy is already fully compliant with the RCUK’s new policy, encouraging self-archiving for (green) public access six months after publication. Therefore, authors publishing in all our journals will continue to be compliant in 2013 and beyond. NPG offers a free archiving service of accepted manuscripts into UK PubMed Central for RCUK and Wellcome Trust funded authors.‪”

Dame Janet Finch, said:

“I am very encouraged that the Government has accepted the recommendations of our report. I am sure that other members of the working group will echo this. Exploiting the power of the internet to make the latest research findings accessible to everyone who has an interest in them – from business to voluntary organisations and ‘citizen scientists’ – is critically important for a vibrant economy and a healthy society.

“I particularly welcome the Government’s support for ‘Gold’ open access publishing as part of a balanced package of measures; and the new arrangements announced today by Research Councils UK to provide funding for article publishing charges (APCs). Although I recognise that we are in a period of financial stringency, the Government has endorsed to huge economic potential of this move. I therefore hope that this will be taken into account in the next round of funding allocations to research funders and to universities.

“A full transition to open access will take some time, and all the key stakeholders – Government, funders, universities, researchers and publishers – will need to continue to work together to ensure that we proceed in an ordered way, maximising the benefits and minimising the risks. It’s also important that the UK should work with international partners to accelerate the pace of transition not just in the UK but across the world. But the changes announced today mark an important step towards the goal of access for everyone to the work produced by the UK’s world-leading researchers.”

Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said:

“The Wellcome Trust strongly supports the new Research Councils UK policy, and the leadership that RCUK continues to take in ensuring that the outputs of research funded from the public purse are made freely available. These outputs may then be accessed and used in ways that maximise their benefit to society. We are particularly pleased that the Research Councils will provide more flexible funding arrangements to help researchers secure the funds to cover open access publication fees.

“We also welcome the requirement that, where Research Council funds have been used to pay open access fees, papers must be made available under the Creative Commons, Attribution licence (CC-BY), which allows content to be re-used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, subject only to appropriate attribution. This is in line with recent changes to our own open access policy, and we will be working in partnership with the Research Councils over the coming months to implement this requirement.

“We applaud the steps that HEFCE is taking towards ensuring that research outputs submitted for inclusion as part of future Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercises must be made widely available. As REF has such a significant impact on university research, this move will send a strong signal to the research community and will play a significant role in accelerating the transition towards open access.”