If every scientific and scholarly article were publicly available, it would save the Netherlands EUR 133 million a year, according to a SURFfoundation study. The figure is given by Australian economist Prof. John Houghton in a study that SURFfoundation presented to the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
The study found that currently, research universities and 'universities of applied sciences' [hogescholen] pay millions of euros every year for access to scientific and scholarly publications. Businesses, smaller hogescholen, and other organisations often cannot afford the expensive licences needed for access. If the 'Open Access' model were to be applied globally, there would be increased access to research results for both researchers and the public at large.
The study titled 'Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation' compares three publication models. The greatest advantage is offered by the Open Access model, which means that the research institution or the party financing the research pays for publication and the article is then freely accessible. According to the study, adopting this model could lead to an annual saving of EUR 133 million. It further notes that even if the Netherlands were the only country to adopt this publication model and continued to pay for licences to access periodicals, there would still be a saving of EUR 37 million.
The report concludes that the advantages would not just be in the long term; in the transitional phase too, more open access to research results would have positive effects.
The study was commissioned by SURFfoundation and forms part of a series of similar studies carried out in Denmark, Germany, and the UK. A survey will soon be published of the advantages that Open Access publication offers in those countries.
The full text of the study is available online at http://www.surffoundation.nl/economicstudyOA.
