04/21/23

Open Archives

Institutional Issues

Dr Paul Ayris,

Director of Library Services, UCL

e-mail: p.ayris@ucl.ac.uk

04/21/23

Crisis, what crisis?

• The pricing of journals

• Intellectual Property Rights

• Alternative Publishing models– SPARC

• Electronic archiving

04/21/23

Finance

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Cu

mu

lati

ve%

incr

ease

1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Periodical price increases mapped against the RPI

Periodicalprices

RPI

04/21/23

The institutional view

• Costs of the STM crisis

• 24x7 services – any time, any place, anywhere

• The Research Assessment Exercise

• Growth in library use

04/21/23

The academic view (1)

• Peer Review– Membership of Editorial Boards

• IPR– Signed away; Institutions slow to

realise implications

• Archiving– Digital Libraries Coalition is vital

04/21/23

The academic view (2)

• Public Library of Science– http://

www.publiclibraryofscience.org/

– 24948 academics from 167 countries have signed an open letter that urges publishers to allow published research reports to be included in electronic archives

04/21/23

The academic view (3)

• ELSS - Electronic Library of Social Sciences– £36,800 awarded from the Royal

Economic Society to further this alternative approach to journal production

04/21/23

CURL’s view (1)

• Task Force on Scholarly Communication

• ‘Discussions’ with publishers– National deals have proved

difficult for CURL

– Lobby for a general review of STM publishing by the Director General of Fair Trading?

04/21/23

CURL’s view (2)

• CURL is producing advocacy packs for members for 2001/2002 session

• CURL encourages alternative forms of publishing:– SPARC

– Open Archives Initiative

04/21/23

The way forward?

• OAI-compliant servers in each institution?

• Consortial approach:– By Region?

– By Library?

– By subject?

04/21/23

The way forward?

• Is this best as a library-based operation?– It is an information activity

– Librarians understand metadata

– Initiative sits comfortably with digital libraries

– Complements library housekeeping systems

04/21/23

Risk analysis (1)

• Multiple costs– Universities pay for printed

journals AND OAI infrastructure

• Importance of peer review– Peer review is essential in some

subjects, but not others

– Link between unrefereed e-print and later refereed publication?

04/21/23

Risk analysis (2)

• What are the costs of OAIs?– Staffing costs?

– Metadata costs?

– Infrastructure costs?

• Who owns IPR?– University or individual?

– OR talk about rights management?

04/21/23

Action Plan (1)

• From an institutional view point:– Glasgow, Nottingham, Edinburgh,

Southampton and Strathclyde are investing in OAIs

– Can JISC offer funding for an evaluation of these initiatives down the line?

04/21/23

Action Plan (2)

– Can this review identify Best Practice?

– Lobby the Funding Councils for monies to establish an over-arching body to co-ordinate these developments in the UK?

– Obtain national funding to set up Open Archives in all universities?

04/21/23

The biggest risk

• ... is to do nothing and allow Universities to continue to be victims...