Open access: current status and future

plansDeborah Kahn

Publishing Director, BioMed Central

Open access publishing

Different business model…..

• no subscription barriers

• universal access• research is openly

licensed to allow reuse

Same quality and standards

• Editors in chief• Editorial boards• Peer review• Indexing

Strong growth since 2000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

Oxford OpenBMCPLoSHindawiCopernicusSpringer Open Choice

Year

Nu

mb

er

of

pap

ers

Across all subject areas

Anatomy of open access publishing: a study of longitudinal development and internal structure, Mikael Laakso and Bo-Christer Björk , BMC Medicine, 2012, 10: 124

And across the world

Some advantages of open access• Unlimited access to all who need it• Continuous publication

– not limited by page budgets– Space allows inclusive policies

• Focus on increasing visibility of articles through blogs, blurbs, tweets

• Articles are openly licensed so can be reused• Allows text mining of data and literature• No limits on size, number of colour figures,

videos, additional files…..

Enables new collaborations“ I received comments through my blog, Twitter network where I have over 6000 followers, Facebook which I use for professional reasons, and Friendfeed, where there is a scientific community...” “getting feedback online and being able to ask scientific questions (through crowdsourcing) were not surprising. What was surprising though is that scientists who work in the same field as us found us now easily and we managed to launch new collaborations based on this (we plan to share the data with a group in the US and combine our efforts for a new study). From this perspective, publishing in an open access journal can provide enormous opportunities if the communication methods of social media are also used by the authors properly and with strategy.”

http://www.oastories.org/2011/09/hungary-researcher-dr-bertalan-mesko-open-access-and-social-media/

Open access journals need to cover their costs

• Managing peer review• Online journal systems• Formatting and mark up of articles• Inclusion in indexing services• Making sure readers and authors know

about the journal

How do costs get coveredJo

urn

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wit

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hat

inco

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sourc

e

Large publishers

Other publishers

Page chargesRe-printsConference feeServices

Data from the SOAP study, http://project-soap.eu/

Waiver fund for authors in low-income countries

Applies to all low and low-middle income countries that have GDP<$200bn

>5% of total articles are being published under scheme

BioMed Central

• Launched first open access journal in 2000• Currently publishes over 240 Open Access journals• Over 130,000 peer-reviewed OA articles published • More than 10 million article downloads per month• All research articles published under Creative

Commons license so can be re-used• Costs covered by 'article processing charge' (APC)• BioMed Central also hosts and supports

SpringerOpen portfolio

Recent developments

Coming soon

BioMed Central and Africa

• Waiver fund• Foundation membership• Open access in the developing world• Open Access Africa• Summit on the sustainability of open

access in Africa

Submissions and publications from African authors are

increasing

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Projected0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

SubmissionsPublications

Foundation Membership• Institutions can show support for open access

– No cost• Criteria for qualifying institutions:

– Institution has an Open Access policy in place– Researchers have published at least 5 articles in BioMed

Central journals in the last year– Institution based in waiver fund country

• Benefits– A BioMed Central Webpage– OA promotional material– Membership usage reports– Member logo/badge for use on institution website– Promotion of Membership

Open Access Africa

• 2010: Kenya; 2011: Ghana; 2012: South Africa

• Outcomes so far– Sudan’s first Institutional Repository, created by the

University of Khartoum, was a direct result of Open Access Africa 2010

– New open access groups formed in Nigeria and Ghana– Greater awareness of challenges faced by open access

journals based in Africa– Summit on sustainability of open access publishing in

Africa

Summit on sustainability of open access publishing

in AfricaAJOL, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bioline

International, BioMed Central, Carnegie Corporation, DFID, INASP/ Publishers for Development, KNUST,  

Medicins Sans Frontiers, Pan African Medical Journal, Public Library of Science, Shuttleworth Foundation,

Stellenbosch University, The Association of Commonwealth Universities, UNECA ,

Wellcome Trust, WHO, World Bank

Summit outcomes• Commitment to OA from funders and

institutions– Funders want their funds to be used to make

research OA• Improving the reputation of open access

– Showing that prestigious research is published OA– Effective OA communication/advocacy– Showing the value proposition– Getting buy-in from the African influencers

• Capacity building – Research and publishing expertise

• Follow up meeting to be held in Capetown this week

OAA 2012 Program

• Based on the three main outcomes of the summit– Open access overview– Capacity building– Advocacy– Sustainability

Twitter hashtag#OAAfrica2012

Thank you

deborah.kahn@biomedcentral.com