Knowledge unlatched : enabling open access for scholarly books

Although digital technology has made it possible for many more people to access content at no extra cost, fewer people than ever before are able to read the books written by university-based researchers. This workshop explores the role that open access licenses and collective action might play in reviving the scholarly monograph: a specialised area of academic publishing that has seen sales decline by more than 90 per cent over the past three decades. It also introduces Knowledge Unlatched an ambitious attempt to create an internationally coordinated, sustainable route to open access for scholarly books. Knowledge Unlatched is now in its pilot phase.

Knowledge unlatched : open access and scholarly books - workshop report

On 19 June 2013 Knowledge Unlatched and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School jointly convened a one-day workshop titled Open Access and Scholarly Books in Cambridge, MA. The workshop brought together a group of 21 invited publishers, librarians, academics and Open Access innovators to discuss the challenge of making scholarly books Open Access. This report captures discussions that took place on the day.

Knowledge unlatched: A global library consortium model for funding open access scholarly books: Full report on the Proof of Concept Pilot 2014

This special issue of Cultural Science Journal is devoted to the report of a groundbreaking experiment in re-coordinating global markets for specialist scholarly books and enabling the knowledge commons: the Knowledge Unlatched proof-of-concept pilot. The pilot took place between January 2012 and September 2014. It involved libraries, publishers, authors, readers and research funders in the process of developing and testing a global library consortium model for supporting Open Access books. The experiment established that authors, librarians, publishers and research funding agencies can work together in powerful new ways to enable open access; that doing so is cost effective; and that a global library consortium model has the potential dramatically to widen access to the knowledge and ideas contained in book-length scholarly works.

Knowledge unlatched : A global library consortium model for funding Open Access scholarly books

Specialist scholarly books, including monographs, allow researchers to present their work, pose questions and to test and extend areas of theory through long-form writing. In spite of the fact that research communities all over the world value monographs and depend heavily on them as a requirement of tenure and promotion in many disciplines, sales of this kind of book are in free fall, with some estimates suggesting declines of as much as 90% over twenty years (Willinsky 2006). Cashstrapped monograph publishers have found themselves caught in a negative cycle of increasing prices and falling sales, with few resources left to support experimentation, business model innovation or engagement with digital technology and Open Access (OA). This chapter considers an important attempt to tackle failing markets for scholarly monographs, and to enable the wider adoption of OA licenses for book-length works: the 2012 – 2014 Knowledge Unlatched pilot. Knowledge Unlatched is a bold attempt to reconfigure the market for specialist scholarly books: moving it beyond the sale of ‘content’ towards a model that supports the services valued by scholarly and wider communities in the context of digital possibility. Its success has powerful implications for the way we understand copyright’s role in the creative industries, and the potential for established institutions and infrastructure to support the open and networked dynamics of a digital age.

Report on Knowledge Exchange workshop Sustainable Business Models for Open Access Services

The work on the sustainability of organisations which exist to provide services to the Open Access community, commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, identified that such organisations need to have a business-like approach and that the absence of rigorous attention to all aspects of the business may lead to sub-optimal performance and, potentially, failure. With this in mind, a Sustainability Index was drafted for consideration by attendees at the Knowledge Exchange workshop on sustainability in Utrecht (February 2014). Over fifty participants, representing Open Access service providers, IT-infrastructure and research funders, and users,worked to making past recommendations from KE work on Open Access actionable.

Access to environmental information in an Open European Society - Directive 2003/4. Research Paper in Law 5/2003

[From the Introduction]. Information gives knowledge and knowledge gives power. Though in all EC Member States, the task to protect the environment is given to the administration, it is obvious that the administration is not the owner of the environment. The environment is everybody's. It is for this reason that administrative decisions which affect the environment must be transparent, open and must strike a balance between the general interest to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment on the one hand, the satisfying of specific private or public interests on the other hand. In order to allow at least a certain control of whether the administration strikes the right balance between the need to protect the environment and other legitimate or less legitimate needs, it appears normal and self-evident that information on the environment which is in the hands of public authorities, be also made available to the public and to citizens.

Practical challenges in moving to Open Access: a focus on research funders and universities

At the Berlin7 conference in Paris on 3 December 2009 Knowledge Exchange provided a workshop on the practical challenges to be addressed in moving to Open Access. Presentations where provided by John Houghton and Alma Swan discussing the outcomes of studies on the costs and benefits of Open Access for institutions and the society as a whole. These were followed by presentations by two funding agencies on the results of financing publication costs both at an institutional and national level in Germany. Also the results of the Springer deal in the Netherlands where presented. The third section was focused on the results of implementing mandates both by funding bodies and institutions.

From a traditionally open access fishery to modern restrictions: Portuguese anglers' perceptions about newly implemented recreational fishing regulations

Saltwater recreational fishing (SRF) in Portugal was for a long time an open-access activity, without restrictions of any kind. Restrictions to control the recreational harvest were first implemented in 2006 and were highly criticized by the angler community, for being highly restrictive and lacking scientific support. The present study aimed to obtain socio-economic data on the recreational shore anglers and gauge their perceptions about recreational fishing regulations and the newly implemented restrictions in Portugal. Roving creel surveys were conducted along the south and south-west coasts of Portugal, during pre and post regulation periods (2006-2007). A total of 1298 valid face-to-face interviews were conducted. Logit models were fitted to identify which characteristics influence anglers' perceptions about recreational fishing regulations. The majority of the interviewed anglers was aware and agreed with the existence of recreational fishing regulations. However, most were against the recreational fishing regulations currently in place. The logit models estimates revealed that Portuguese anglers with a higher level of formal education and income are more likely to agree with the existence of recreational fishing regulations. In contrast, anglers who perceive that more limitations and a better enforcement of commercial fishing would improve fishing in the area are less likely to agree with the existence of SRF regulations. The findings from this study will contribute to inform decision-makers about anglers' potential behaviour towards the new and future regulations. Although the existence of fishing regulations is a good starting point for effective management, the lack of acceptance and detailed knowledge of the regulations in place by fishers may result in lack of compliance, and ultimately hinder the success of recreational fishing regulations in Portugal. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Access to public sector information : law, technology and policy

On the back of the growing capacity of networked digital information technologies to process and visualise large amounts of information in a timely, efficient and user-driven manner we have seen an increasing demand for better access to and re-use of public sector information (PSI). The story is not a new one. Share knowledge and together we can do great things; limit access and we reduce the potential for opportunity. The two volumes of this book seek to explain and analyse this global shift in the way we manage public sector information. In doing so they collect and present papers, reports and submissions on the topic by leading authors and institutions from across the world. These in turn provide people tasked with mapping out and implementing information policy with reference material and practical guidance. Volume 1 draws together papers on the topic by policymakers, academics and practitioners while Volume 2 presents a selection of the key reports and submissions that have been published over the last few years.

Facilitating Malaysia towards innovative society : arguing the case for open access policy

The Malaysian National Innovation Model blueprint states that there is an urgent need to pursue an innovation-oriented economy to improve the nation’s capacity for knowledge, creativity and innovation. In nurturing a pervasive innovation culture, the Malaysian government has declared the year 2010 as an Innovative Year whereby creativity among its population is highly celebrated. However, while Malaysian citizens are encouraged to be creative and innovative, scientific data and information generated from publicly funded research in Malaysia is locked up because of rigid intellectual property licensing regimes and traditional publishing models. Reflecting on these circumstances, this paper looks at, and argue why, scientific data and information should be made available, accessible and re-useable freely to promote the grassroots level of innovation in Malaysia. Using innovation theory as its platform of argument, this paper calls for an open access policy for publicly funded research output to be adopted and implemented in Malaysia. Simultaneously, a normative analytic approach is used to determine the types of open access policy that ought to be adopted to spur greater innovation among Malaysians.

Enabling access to and re-use of publicly funded research data as Open Educational Resources : a strategy for overcoming the legal barriers to data access and re-use

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials that have been released under an open licence that permits online access and re-use by others. The 2012 Paris OER Declaration encourages the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds. Digital data and data sets produced as a result of scientific and non-scientific research are an increasingly important category of educational materials. This paper discusses the legal challenges presented when publicly funded research data is made available as OER, arising from intellectual property rights, confidentiality and information privacy laws, and the lack of a legal duty to ensure data quality. If these legal challenges are not understood, addressed and effectively managed, they may impede and restrict access to and re-use of research data. This paper identifies some of the legal challenges that need to be addressed and describes 10 proposed best practices which are recommended for adoption to so that publicly funded research data can be made available for access and re-use as OER.

Open Access Books

Although digital technology has, in theory, made it possible for many more people to access content at no extra cost, fewer people than ever before are able to read the books written by university-based researchers. This article looks, very briefly, at the role that open access licenses might play in reviving the scholarly monograph: a specialised area of academic publishing that has seen sales decline by more than 90% over the past three decades. It also introduces a new approach to funding open-access scholarly books being pioneered by the not-for-profit social enterprise Knowledge Unlatched.

Strategies for gaining and maintaining academic support for the institutional open access repository

The impact of research can be measured by use or citation count. The more widely available that research outputs are; the more likely they are to be used, and the higher the impact. Making the author-manuscript version of research outputs freely available via the institutional repository greatly increases the availability of research outputs and can increase the impact. QUT ePrints, the open access institutional repository of research outputs at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, was established in 2003 and is managed by the QUT Library. The repository now contains over 39,000 records. More than 21,000 of these records have full-text copies attached as result of continuous effort to maintain momentum and encourage academic engagement. The full-text deposit rate has continued to increase over time and, in 2012 (August, at the time of writing), 88% of the records for works published in 2012 provide access to a full-text copy. Achieving success has required a long term approach to collaboration, open access advocacy, repository promotion, support for the deposit process, and ongoing system development. This paper discusses the various approaches adopted by QUT Library, in collaboration with other areas of the University, to achieve success. Approaches include mainstreaming the repository via having it report to the University Research and Innovation Committee; regular provision of deposit rate data to faculties; championing key academic supporters; and holding promotional competitions and events such as during Open Access Week. Support and training is provided via regular deposit workshops with academics and faculty research support groups and via the provision of online self-help information. Recent system developments have included the integration of citation data (from Scopus and Web of Science) and the development of a statistical reporting system which incentivise engagement.

Open Access and Scholarly Books: Workshop Report, 19 June 2013

On 19 June 2013 Knowledge Unlatched and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School jointly convened a one-day workshop titled Open Access and Scholarly Books in Cambridge, MA. The workshop brought together a group of 21 invited publishers, librarians, academics and Open Access innovators to discuss the challenge of making scholarly books Open Access. This report captures discussions that took place on the day.

Open access and scholarly books : Australian perspectives

This three-hour workshop tackles the crucial question of whether globally coordinated, market based approaches to funding open access monographs can support the unique needs of Australian research communities. The workshop takes place in the context of the release in August 2013 of the Book Industry Collaborative Council (BICC) report and especially the recommendations included in the chapter on scholarly book publishing in the humanities and social sciences. This workshop, with expert speakers from the BICC Committee and from across the scholarly publishing industry, will discuss the policy issues most likely to ensure that Australian scholarly communities and audiences are best served in an era of digital technology and globalisation. Australia must think globally and support developments that enhance the accessibility of publicly-funded research. Speakers will outline recent developments in scholarly monograph publishing including new Open Access initiatives and developments. Knowledge Unlatched, is one example of an attempt to create an internationally coordinated, market-based route to open access for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) monographs. Knowledge Unlatched, a not-for-profit London-based company is piloting a global library consortium approach to funding open access monographs and released its pilot program in early October with 28 titles from 13 publishers. The workshop invites discussion and debate from librarians, publishers, researchers and research funders on the role of international coordination and markets in securing a more open future for Australian HASS scholarship.