The UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has welcomed the UK Open Access Implementation Group’s (OAIG) reports and the recently released new repositories resource pack.
The “Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research report” (PDF) and the “Open Access Fees Report” show the outcomes of research into the benefits of open access (OA) to commercial companies. They also show findings from a consultation on the practicalities of paying for OA publication.
Taken together, these are seen to present a major step towards releasing UK research to underpin the nation’s prospects for growth both now, via direct innovation, and into the future, via a more efficient and effective research infrastructure.
The evidence suggests that these benefits would flow across a wide range of sectors of the UK knowledge economy, and supports previous research which estimated benefits in the order of £100 million per year.
OA requires action by universities, funders and publishers to work together to make this happen. The OAIG has commissioned JISC Collections to produce an ‘Open Access Fees Report’ which consulted with these groups and other organisations on the arrangements whereby payment is made for OA publication.
A new repositories resource pack is also being launched to help universities take immediate action to support wider access to UK research, by ensuring that as much of their research output as possible is made openly available via their institutional repository. The resource pack brings together all the information and guidance that UK universities might need in taking the policy decisions and practical steps for this to happen.
Members of the OAIG have agreed on a 2012 strategy to help implement the recommendations from these reports and build on the past 12 months of its work. This strategy includes increasing the numbers of universities with policies supporting open access; better compliance with funders’ OA policies; commissioning work to monitor progress, and so chart the UK’s moves toward a better system for communicating research, supporting its researchers, knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.
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