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.

Open Access -julkaiseminen, linkittäminen ja tekijänoikeus - selvitys verkkojulkaisusopimuksissa huomioitavista seikoista

Kirjastoissa ja yliopistoissa tapahtuvaa tieteellisten töiden verkkokäyttöä koskevat tekijänoikeudelliset kysymykset ovat viimeaikoina aiheuttaneet päänvaivaa. Tietoverkot ja digitaalinen ympäristö muodostavatkin tekijänoikeuden kannalta erityisen soveltamisympäristön johon perehtyminen edellyttää tarkempaa tietämystä tiedon siirtämisestä, tietokannoista sekä ylipäätään tietoverkkoihin liittyvistä teknisistä toiminnoista. Koska sovelletut tekniset ratkaisut poikkeavat eri yhteyksissä toisistaan, pyrin kirjoituksessa yleisellä tasolla selvittämään niitä käyttäjien ja oikeudenhaltijoiden välisiä tekijän- ja sopimusoikeudellisia kysymyksiä, joita teosten käyttö tietoverkoissa aiheuttaa. Pyrkimyksenä on tuoda esiin ne tekijänoikeudellisesti merkitykselliset seikat, jotka verkkojulkaisuja arkistoitaessa, välitettäessä sekä linkkejä käytettäessä tulisi alkuperäisten tekijöiden, kustantajien ja verkkojulkaisijoiden (esimerkiksi kirjasto tai yliopisto) välisissä sopimuksissa ottaa huomioon. Kysymyksiä tarkastellaan erityisesti julkaisijan näkökulmasta. Esitys sisältää myös kustantajien lupakäytäntöä käsittelevän empiirisen tutkimuksen. Tutkimuksessa on tarkasteltu kuinka usein kustantajat ovat vuosien 2000 – 2003 välisenä aikana myöntäneet luvan julkaista väitöskirjan artikkeli osana väitöskirjaa Teknillisen korkeakoulun avoimella ei kaupallisella www-palvelimella. Koska linkeillä on verkkojulkaisutoiminnassa usein merkittävä rooli, mutta niiden tekijänoikeudellinen asema on epäselvä, kirjoituksen jälkimmäisessä osiossa perehdytään linkkien tekijänoikeudelliseen asemaan.

Sustainability of Open Access Services - Phases 1 & 2

Although some services that support Open Access have developed a sustainable business model, many started as projects and continue to run on recurrent project funding or goodwill. If these are critical components of the evolving scholarly communication system the foundation of Open Access is vulnerable. Knowledge Exchange has commissioned this study as part of a larger programme of work to look at the issue of sustaining key services into the long term. This report focuses on phases one and two of the programme. Phase one was a scoping exercise, carried out mainly through a literature review and an extensive stakeholder interview exercise, to describe the services that are currently available or would be valuable in the future. It also investigated what roles stakeholders could play in this future scenario. Phase two was a stakeholder consultation and engagement exercise. The aim was to engage stakeholders with the work programme so that they could contribute their views, get involved with the work and have a voice in the thinking about future scenarios. The key services are presented for three future scenarios: ‘Gold’ Open Access, fully ‘Green’ Open Access and Green’ Open Access supplementing subscription access as ‘Gold’ OA grows. Three strategic areas are identified as having particular potential for future work. These are embedding business development expertise into service development; consideration of how to move money around the system to enable Open Access to be achieved optimally; and governance and coordination of the infrastructural foundation of Open Access. The report concludes with seven recommendations, both high-level and practical, for further work around these strategic areas.

SUSTAINABILITY OF OPEN ACCESS SERVICES: Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources

The report ‘Sustainability of Open Access Services - Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources’ discusses the economic and institutional issues faced by those sustaining free infrastructure services. It also identifies strategies to coordinate the collective provision of infrastructure services. These considerations are valuable input for the phases 4 and 5 of the project ‘Sustainability of Open Access Services’. This body of work will lead to practical recommendations for funders and project planners to consider when initiating an infrastructure service. The report was written by Raym Crow and funded by SPARC. Several key messages from the report are of interest. Providing infrastructure services as a public good imposes specific requirements on the design of the sustainability model. The challenge is to get enough institutions to reveal their demand for the service and support this. Arguments for an institution to support can be altruism or reciprocity or there being sufficient benefit to the institution for supporting a service. Institutions can also work together on a service through collective action (collecting voluntary contributions) and cross subsidies (funding collected by offering exclusive benefits to contributors).

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.

Review of Open Access Policy Dependencies

Knowledge Exchange analysed the extent to which OA policies are dependent on a number of non-commercial, compliance-enabling services used by researchers and institutions. This work offers clear evidence to policy makers on the importance of a number of non-commercial services to the successful implementation of OA policies. It also shows that many of these services are at risk and warrant further support in financial and/or governance terms. The summary report (available here) includes an analysis of a wide range of OA services and policies currently in use and presents: • an analysis of the common elements found in the current OA policies adopted by research funders and institutions • a set of case studies that illustrate the direct or indirect dependency of OA policies on key services • the views of stakeholders on the key services that enable compliance with OA policies • use cases, presented in accessible formats and language for a non-technical audience • a set of priorities for action if OA policies are to be successfully implemented

Open access digest issue one

The first quarterly digest of news about Jisc’s work in open access (OA).

Restricted Access vs. Open Access Methods of Management: Toward More Effective Regulation of Fishing Effort

This paper gives an overview of the economic rationale for limited entry as a method of fishery management and discusses general advantages and disadvantages of license limitation and catch rights as the two primary methods of restricting access to marine fisheries. Traditional open-access methods of regulation (e.g., gear restrictions, size limits, trip limits, quotas, and closures) can be temporarily effective in protecting fish populations, but they generally fail to provide lasting biological or economic benefits to fishermen because they do not restrict access to the fishery. The general result of regulation with unrestricted access to a fishery is additional and more costly and complex regulations as competition increases for dwindling fishery resources. Regulation that restricts access to a fishery in conjunction with selected traditional methods of regulation would encourage efficient resource usage and minimize the need for future regulatory adjustments, provided that enforcement and monitoring costs are not too great. In theory, catch rights are superior to license limitation as a means of restricting access to a fishery.

Scholarship, Libraries, and Open Access Archiving Initiative

The resolution passed by the BU University Council approving an initiative to establish an archive of the research and scholarship produced by the faculty of the University.

Services to support BU Authors with Open Access Issues

A working paper written for Boston University Libraries to foster discussion about how to provide better support for BU faculty authors.