Editorial: Opening the floodgates?

Abstract

Editorial Opening the floodgates? The publication by the National SteeringCommittee on Open Access, on 23 October 2012, of theNational PrinciplesforOpen Access Policy Statementwas a very significantmoment for everybody involved in the production and disseminationof researchin Ireland.1 Informedby international'best practice', and the recommendations of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) policy on open access with respect to scientific publications, enunciated in 2006, upon which the European Commission 'Open Access Pilot' in Framework 7 was constructed,it has receivedpowerfulendorsement froma varietyof European Union institutions.As the Statementobserves: It is in line with the European Commission 'Recommendations on Access to and Preservation of ScientificInformation' (July2012), the European Commission 'Communication Towards better access to scientificinformation:Boosting the benefitsof public investmentsin research' and withthe BOAI-IO (Budapest Open Access Initiativeafter 10 years) 'Recommendations' (September 2012). It is also in keeping withthecombined OECD Ministers' Declaration entrusting theOECD to worktowardscommonlyagreed 'Principlesand Guidelines on Access to Research Data fromPublic Funding'.2 It was to be anticipated,therefore, thatSean Sherlock,theministerof statewith responsibilityforresearchand innovation in theDepartment of Education and Skills, should give the policy the Irish government'sendorsement when he launched the 'Statement' during International Open Access Week on 25 October.3 It was hardly unexpected, that the Statement secured the backing oftheIrishUniversitiesAssociation (IUA), whichhas been committedforsome timeto thisstrategy. As one of its StrategicInnovation Fund projects,theIUA was involvedin thedevelopmentof theRian portal (rian.ie), Ireland's first open doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2013. 113.12 1 The National PrinciplesforOpen Access Policy Statementcan conveniently be located on the IrishUniversity Association(IUA) website:www.iua.ie(accessed 12 April2013). Open AccessPolicyStatement, 2. IrishTimes, 25 October2012. Proceedingsof theRoyal Irish Academy Vol. 113C, vii-xi © 2013 Royal Irish Academy JamesKelly access to researchportal. This portal allows open access to the publications of the seven universitiesand DIT. In addition, WaterfordInstituteof Technology, the Royal College of Surgeons,Teagasc, and the Marine Institutepossess open access repositories, and others are in the process of establishing the same. Indicatively,the appendix to the National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement lists twentyorganisations as supporters of the Statement. These include the IUA, the Irish Research Council, the Higher Education Authority and Science Foundation Ireland. Given this background and context, one might be pardoned for concluding that open access is a development that deserves the full and unambiguous support of all who are engaged in the production and dissemination of research. This apparently is the position of the various governmental,institutionaland organisational bodies (twentyin number) that have publiclysupported theNational Open Access Policy Statement.To quote once more from the National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement: 'Open Access adds value to research,to theeconomy and to society'. Moreover, the Statementcontinues,'the outputs frompublicly-fundedresearchshould be publicly available [not only] to researchers, but also to potential users in education, business,charitable and public sectors,and to the general public'.4 Why then, it may be asked, has it been deemed necessary to establish a 'National SteeringCommittee on Open Access Policy', and whyhave seventeen institutionaland organisational bodies signedup? Why,also, are thehumanities disciplines,and the organisations and bodies committedto thepromotion and advancement of researchin the humanities,so ill at ease at the prospect of an initiative that, its advocates reasonably avow, will facilitate the wider dissemination of the very research that is also their raison d'être ? There are many factors at play. At its simplest,concern has been aroused by the speed withwhich thisinitiativeis being pursued, and, because theimpetusin support of open access has come from the sciences, by the fact that the humanities disciplineseitherdid not take sufficient notice of what was happening or were not sufficiently closely involved in the discussion that has brought us to this point. Eitherway,therealityis thatimminentopen access poses thehumanities disciplines and the research infrastructure they sustain particular problems. Calm and dispassionate consideration of the implications of open access has not been assisted, to be sure, by the pronouncements of a number of British academic organisations, who have been prompted by the publication in the United Kingdom in June2012 of Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to researchpublications(the Finch Report) to issue a veritablecall to arms.5 4 Open AccessPolicyStatement, 1. Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: howtoexpandaccess toresearch publications: Reportof the Working Groupon ExpandingAccess...