Raising your research profile using open access

Catherine NewMatthias Liffers

Curtin University Library

The deluge of information

Open access is…• online and digital• without cost to access• peer reviewed research• compliant with copyright legislation• free of access barriers created by financial,

legal or technical issues

http://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/open-access

Traditional publishing model

What the market will bear• The Russell Group paid £18.24

million for a single year’s access to Elsevier journals

• Research-intensive US institution paid $6 mil on journal subscriptions in 2009

T. Gowers (2014). Elsevier journals – some facts http://gowers.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/elsevier-journals-some-facts/ T. Bergstrom, P. Courant, R. Preston McAfee & M. Williams (2014). Evaluating big deal journal bundles http://www.pnas.org/content/111/26/9425.full#T1

Limiting your audience

Beneficiaries of open access• General public• Researchers in developing countries• Practitioners• Policy makers• Researchers outside academia• Researchers within academia

Feeling the strain“Major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas, already compromised.

(2012). Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448

Benefits to science“A lack of access to information hinders learning, stifles innovation and slows scientific progress.”

E. McKiernan (2014). University research: if you believe in openness, stand up for it http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/aug/22/university-research-publish-open-access-journal

Lack of access can…• Create bias in the sources used• Compromise quality of the work• Lead to redundant work or duplicated

efforts• Limit scope of enquiry

research information network (2009). Overcoming barriers: access to research information http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/overcoming-barriers-access-research-information

Increasing your impact“If you get 900,000 or more hits in response to a [Google] search for a subject, and your research is on the first page, that can be pretty impressive, and you can imagine the effect on the researcher concerned.”

T. Cochrane (2014). Why open access is the next frontier for science http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/why-open-access-is-the-next-frontier-for-science/5526566

Why open access?“If a research project is worth funding, then its results are worth sharing.” Peter Suber

Springer (2013). Open access - broad readership, high impact: What authors need to know and how they can benefithttp://www.springeropen.com/sites/9014/download/A01240_DF_WhitePaper_Open_Access_web_final_Sep2013.pdf

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How do you discover people?

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Making yourself discoverable

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What can you share?• Papers• Presentations• Posters• Mass communication• Research data• Anything that could be of benefit20/10/2014

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Papers• Gold OA–Made openly available on publishers’

site– Article Processing Charge may be

applicable

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Papers• Green OA– Submit to espace@Curtin via SCRIPT– Generally requires “final accepted

manuscript”– espace staff will confirm copyright

status– Download statistics available (example)

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Presentations• Slideshare– http://slideshare.net/

• Add notes, audio, captions, links…– example

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Posters• Slideshare again!– example

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Communicating• Explaining research in plain English

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Sharing research data• Open data sharing• Get a DOI and get cited• Currently under development

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Linking your outputs• Staff profile• ORCiD

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Questions?

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Attributions• From the Noun Project

– Document by Rob Gill – Contract by Luis Prado – Link by Musket– Network by Mister Pixel – Payment by Shafiqa Naazira– Papers by gema.pc– Resume by Stephen Borengasser– Tag by Rohith M S– Time by Richard de Vos– User by Wilson Joseph

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