Making Open Access work

Stephen Pinfield,Professor

doi:10.1108/oir-05-2015-0167

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of one of the most important and controversial areas of scholarly communication: Open Access publishing and dissemination of research outputs. It identifies and discusses recent trends and future challenges for various stakeholders in delivering Open Access (OA) to the scholarly literature.Design/methodology/approach– The study is based on a number of interrelated strands of evidence which make up the current discourse on OA, comprising the peer-reviewed literature, grey literature and other forms of communication (including blogs and e-mail discussion lists). It uses a large-scale textual analysis of the peer-reviewed literature since 2010 (carried out using the VOSviewer tool) as a basis for discussion of issues raised in the OA discourse.Findings– A number of key themes are identified, including the relationship between “Green” OA (deposit in repositories) and “Gold” OA (OA journal publication), the developing evidence base associated with OA, researcher attitudes and behaviours, policy directions, management of repositories, development of journals, institutional responses and issues around impact and scholarly communication futures. It suggests that current challenges now focus on how OA can be made to work in practice, having moved on from the discussion of whether it should happen at all.Originality/value– The paper provides a structured evidence-based review of major issues in the OA field, and suggests key areas for future research and policy development.

Highlights

Providing open access to the research literature has become one of the major challenges in the field digital, (Suber, 2012, p. 4) has been discussed for over 20 years, it is more widely accepted as a credible prospect, and this is being reflected in changes in researcher behaviours, publisher approaches and funder policies
Pinfield (2009) presented several models of a synergistic relationship between repositories and journals based on an analysis of developing open access (OA) services
Most of the key issues associated with OA are primarily about making it work in practice not about whether it should happen at all

Summary

Introduction

Providing open access to the research literature has become one of the major challenges in the field W digital,(Suber, 2012, p. 4) has been discussed for over 20 years, it is more widely accepted as a credible prospect, and this is being reflected in changes in researcher behaviours, publisher approaches and funder policies. Providing open access to the research literature has become one of the major challenges in the field W digital,. 4) has been discussed for over 20 years, it is more widely accepted as a credible prospect, and this is being reflected in changes in researcher behaviours, publisher approaches and funder policies. It highlights a number of key issues which are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this special issue. The analysis in this study has involved examination of five inter-related strands of evidence which form parts of the current discourse on open access: 1.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion