Author: Katie Wilson

The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review

Authors: Tennant, J.P., Waldner, F., Jacques, D.C., Masuzzo, P., Collister, L.B., and Hartgerink, C.H.J.

Comment:
Extensive review/overview of academic, social and economic impacts of OA and different stakeholders in terms of scholarly publishing north/south and briefly open data and open science.

Abstract:
Ongoing debates surrounding Open Access to the scholarly literature are multifaceted and complicated by disparate and often polarised viewpoints from engaged stakeholders. At the current stage, Open Access has become such a global issue that it is critical for all involved in scholarly publishing, including policymakers, publishers, research funders, governments, learned societies, librarians, and academic communities, to be well-informed on the history, benefits, and pitfalls of Open Access. In spite of this, there is a general lack of consensus regarding the potential pros and cons of Open Access at multiple levels. This review aims to be a resource for current knowledge on the impacts of Open Access by synthesizing important research in three major areas: academic, economic and societal. While there is clearly much scope for additional research, several key trends are identified, including a broad citation advantage for researchers who publish openly, as well as additional benefits to the non-academic dissemination of their work. The economic impact of Open Access is less well-understood, although it is clear that access to the research literature is key for innovative enterprises, and a range of governmental and non-governmental services. Furthermore, Open Access has the potential to save both publishers and research funders considerable amounts of financial resources, and can provide some economic benefits to traditionally subscription-based journals. The societal impact of Open Access is strong, in particular for advancing citizen science initiatives, and leveling the playing field for researchers in developing countries. Open Access supersedes all potential alternative modes of access to the scholarly literature through enabling unrestricted re-use, and long-term stability independent of financial constraints of traditional publishers that impede knowledge sharing. However, Open Access has the potential to become unsustainable for research communities if high-cost options are allowed to continue to prevail in a widely unregulated scholarly publishing market. Open Access remains only one of the multiple challenges that the scholarly publishing system is currently facing. Yet, it provides one foundation for increasing engagement with researchers regarding ethical standards of publishing and the broader implications of ‘Open Research’.

Tennant, J.P., Waldner, F., Jacques, D.C., Masuzzo, P., Collister, L.B., and Hartgerink, C.H.J. (2016). The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review. F1000Res 5.

Source: The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review

Openness as Tool for Acceleration and Measurement: Reflections on Problem Representations Underpinning Open Access and Open Science

Author: Jutta Heider

Abstract: Increasingly open access emerges as an issue that researchers, universities, and various infrastructure providers, such as libraries and academic publishers, have to relate to. Commonly policies requiring open access are framed as expanding access to information and hence as being part of a democratization of society and knowledge production processes. However, there are also other aspects that are part of the way in which open access is commonly imagined in the various policy documents, declarations, and institutional demands that often go unnoticed. This essay wants to foreground some of these issues by asking the overarching question: “What is the problem that open access is seen to solve represented to be?” The paper will discuss how demands to open up access to research align also with an administrative enclosure and managerial processes of control and evaluation. It will show that while demands for free and open access to research publications – created or compiled in research processes funded by public money – are seen as contributing to the knowledge base for advancing society for a common good and in that sense framed as part of a liberating discourse, these demands are also expression of a shift of control of the science community to invisible research infrastructures and to an apparatus of administration as well as subscribing to an ideal of entrepreneurialism as well as continuing a problematic and much criticized understanding of Western science as universal.

Haider, J. (2017). Openness as Tool for Acceleration and Measurement: Reflections on Problem Representations Underpinning Open Access and Open Science. In Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access / Edited by Ulrich Herb ; Joachim Schöpfel.(Litwin Books).

Source: Openness as Tool for Acceleration and Measurement: Reflections on Problem Representations Underpinning Open Access and Open Science

Barbarians at the gates: a half-century of unaffiliated users in academic libraries – ScienceDirect

Author: Nancy Courtney

Comment:

Abstract: Discusses effects of academic unaffiliated access, in the US. In particular how technology has impacted and limited access  from 1980s  to 2000 through licensing restrictions and replacement of print serials with ejournals delivering greater control to vendors over access to non-local users.

Courtney, N. (2001). Barbarians at the gates: a half-century of unaffiliated users in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 27, 473–480.

Source: Barbarians at the gates: a half-century of unaffiliated users in academic libraries – ScienceDirect

Alumni access policies in public university libraries

Authors: Natalie Burclaff and Johannes Britz

Summary: Reviews library open access policies in one US university system from the perspective of alumni. Includes good historical account of policy changes since 1970s.

Abstract: This paper explores the current library access policies for alumni at a public university system using document analysis, observations and interviews. We found that alumni are specifically addressed in only two library access policies, and borrowing privileges through cards, on-site access and restricted access to electronic resources are common elements in the policies for community users. There are opportunities to expand and standardize services, and we recommend addressing alumni in policies as a separate user group.

 

Burclaff, Natalie, and Johannes Britz. “Alumni Access Policies in Public University Libraries.” Inkanyiso, Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 3, no. 1 (2011): 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ijhss.v3i1.69496.

Source: Alumni access policies in public university libraries

Added 2018-04-27