The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) has welcomed the package of measures recommended by the Finch Group on expanding access to research publications in the UK. The measures are set out in the recently released Finch Report.
STM believes that the principal recommendations of the Finch Report will be widely supported by its members. It particularly welcomes the recognition (page 4) of the journal’s ‘key role in the complex ecology of research’ and the acknowledgement by the report that a transition to open access will happen over a number of years and incur extra costs in the interim. It also welcomes the recognition that there will be an on-going need for a mixed economy of licensing, self-archiving and open access publication, and that this will require close collaboration between government, funders, universities and publishers.
The report’s recommendations include the setting up of workflows for the APCs (article publishing or processing charges) that will fund open access models (whereby publishing is paid for by the author or funding body) and the extending of existing licences for the universities, research institutes and the health sector. The report also recommends the enabling of free walk-in access via the public libraries network and avoiding of undue risk to valuable journals not funded by APCs.
STM applauds recommendations such as sufficient funds are available via the research councils, the funding councils and the universities to fund APCs for UK researchers, and that the budgetary workflows are in place to deliver these to their publishers. It also welcomes a commitment from the research funders not to require manuscript-posting embargo periods of less than 12 months when dedicated funding to support APCs is not provided, and good faith in negotiating licence extensions in those sectors (primarily the universities and health sectors) that already enjoy good access.
The UK is said to be a leading nation for both its research outputs (6 percent of world articles, 11 percent of citations driven by R&D investment of 3 percent of GDP) and for its intellectual property industries, where the academic and professional sector is a leading investor in electronic products and services that provide £1.2 billion of export revenue and employ over 10,000 people in the UK.
The Finch Group arose out of discussions between the UK PA and UK Science Minister DavidWillets. Working alongside representatives from the funding agencies, the research councils, universities, libraries, the learned societies and the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, terms of reference were agreed, a balanced delegate list invited, a secretariat appointed, and Dame Janet Finch asked to chair. The publishing community was represented by three senior executives from STM member companies, who have kept the publishing community informed about the work of the group throughout.
