Open Access and New Models of Creative production, plug for books and policies

I just came back from a two-day symposium at MIT on "The Economics of Open Content" Jan 23-24, 2006. Organized by Peter Kaufman of Intelligent Television, the meeting featured about 40 great speakers from commercial media industries (publishing, film, music, television, video, software, education materials, gaming) together with representatives from prestigious academic institutions.

For me, there was two main focus: open access and new models of creative production. A lot of discussions turned on how to actually fund open access... and about whether that was even an important issue for the people at the symposium. And then, you also had someone like Yochai Benkler who did a great presentation of what he analyses in his upcoming book (under CC and accessible to us all soon) "The Wealth of Networks: how Social prodution transforms Markets and Freedom". For his keynote on day 2, open access and new models of production was presented not as an issue of economics nor a "copyright problem" but as an existing social practice transforming not only business models but how free we can be!

It was not a "policy wonk" crowd but all these people are serioulsy studying how to make open access to knowledge happen faster and better. And many among them are "practitioners" as demonstrated by the MIT Courseware (all PDF sadly they're not using ODF!) and the work done at the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (great works if you get the university password).

See Program and speakers at http://www.intellingenttelevision.com/research.htm

Other interesting authors who spoke at the meeting and who have new books out:

Eric von Hippel who wrote Democratizing Innovation (available at http://mitpress.mit.edu/democratizing_innovation_PDF

James Surowiecki, staff writer for The New Yorker, auhtor of: The Wisdom of Crowds

John Willinsky: The Access Principle, The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press)

And a good announcement: The MIT Press Journal Information Technologies and International Development (ITID) is in transition toward going open access.

And now, some "optimal national open access policy from India":
From: "Teresa Hackett (eIFL)"
Date: January 25, 2006 10:21:45 AM EST
To: "A2K (E-mail)"
Subject: [A2k] Optimal National OA Policy-suggestions from India

************************

The special session on Open Access held at the 93rd Indian Science
Congress at MANAGE, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, on 6 January 2006, came up with the following recommendation for "Optimal National Open Access Policy".

The Government of India [including DST, DSIR, CSIR, DBT, DoD, DAE, DRDO, ICAR, ICMR, UGC, IITs, IISc, and NITs] expects authors of research papers resulting from publicly-funded research to maximise the opportunities to make their results available for free. To this end the Government:

. Requires electronic copies of any research paper that has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and is supported in whole or in part by Government funding, to be deposited into an institutional open access repository immediately upon acceptance for publication.

. Encourages Government Grant Holders to publish in a suitable Open Access Journal where one exists; the Government will cover the publication costs, if any.

. Encourages Government Grant Holders to retain ownership of the copyright of published papers where possible.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Subbiah Arunachalam
Distinguished Fellow, MSSRF &
Coordinator of the session


FAQs

What are the benefits to researchers of Open Access?

As authors, researchers benefit because their research papers are given a much wider dissemination and can be read without restriction by anyone with Internet access. This increases the impact of their research. Indeed, evidence is accumulating to show that open access articles are cited 25-250% more than non-open access articles from the same journal and year[1]. As readers, researchers benefit because they will increasingly be able to search the full text of all the research published in their area, not just the research available to them via the subscriptions their institution can afford.

What are the benefits to [country]?

First, [country's] research will be more accessible to global researchers, hence better known and more widely used and cited. The prestige of high-profile [country] researchers will increase; even lesser-known researchers will gain more exposure and impact. Second, all [country] research will be open to [country] entrepreneurs and the general public, provided only that they have Internet access. This will be beneficial both commercially and culturally. Third, access, usage and citation data on this research will increasingly become available, shaping national and researcher policies.

What should be deposited when I have a paper ready for publication? The final manuscript of an author's research paper should be deposited. This is the author's own final draft, as accepted for journal publication, including all modifications resulting from the peer-review process. (In some cases publishers may permit their own published version, either in SGML/XML or PDF, to be deposited; this too is
welcome, but is not a requirement.

When should papers be deposited?

An electronic version of the author's final manuscript resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, by Government funding must be submitted upon acceptance for publication.

Will authors still be able to publish in a journal of their choice?

Authors will still decide in which journal they choose to publish their research papers. They will, however, have to ensure that a copy of the final, peer-reviewed paper is deposited in their institutional repository upon acceptance for publication.

How can I find out whether my journal has an open access-compliant policy with regard to depositing my manuscript in my institutional repository?

You should consult the individual journal's policy which is given at:
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php or at http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html

So what should authors do?

In advance of making any agreement with or commitment to a publisher at any stage, authors must ensure that the agreement or commitment does not conflict with the author's obligations under the Government's Grant Conditions. Specifically, authors should inform the journal that they have an existing obligation to deposit in an open access repository and check whether the publisher's policy is in conflict with this obligation. The Government's Grant Conditions are mandatory and binding on institutions, grant holders, and all others supported by a grant. An author's obligations to the Government will therefore, except during a brief transitional period, pre-date any agreement with a journal.

What is an open access journal?

An open access journal makes articles it publishes freely accessible online[2]. Some open access journals also cover their costs by charging the author's institution or funder for publication. The Government will cover such open access publication costs where needed.

What kind of papers should I submit?

The policy applies to peer-reviewed, original (primary) research publications and reviews that have been supported, in whole or in part, by Government funding. The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, or book reviews.

Do I need to deposit my paper if the journal publishing my research already provides immediate open access to my articles?

Deposit is not required but is still recommended even if a manuscript has been accepted by an open access journal. Your institution will still wish to have your work deposited in its repository to enable it to maintain a compete record of institutional research output.


[1] Hajjem, C., Harnad, S. and Gingras, Y. (2005)
Ten-Year Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the Growth of Open Access and
How it Increases Research Citation Impact (pdf 8pp)
IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 28 No. 4, December 2005
also Author eprint, 16 December 2005 http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11688/

[2] Directory of Open Access Journals www.doaj.org

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