Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications/Research and Communication
1. Research and Communication
1.1. Researchers are driven by a desire to enhance knowledge and understanding of the world we inhabit, and to communicate their findings to others so that they may learn about them and benefit from them. Governments, businesses, charities and others invest large sums of money in research in order to achieve those benefits: to increase knowledge and understanding, but also to make tangible contributions to social welfare and to economic growth. For research and its products are not just economic assets: they contribute immeasurably to the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. Governments across the world therefore see the vitality of the research base as fundamental to the health of a modern society and economy. Generating social and economic benefits through investments in research are thus key considerations in the development of public policy.
1.2. The development of effective channels of communication between researchers across the globe has been a critical factor underpinning the growth in our understanding of the world over the past 350 years. Since the establishment of the first scientific journals in 1665, the communication of theoretical and empirical findings through such journals and other publications has been at the heart of the scientific and broader research enterprise. The core functions of these journals were identified by Henry Oldenburg, the first Secretary of the Royal Society and the creator of its Philosophical Transactions:
- registering research findings, their timing, and the person(s) responsible
- reviewing and certifying the findings before they are published
- disseminating the new knowledge
- preserving a record of the findings for the long term.
1.3. Communicating research results through journals has proved remarkably effective in enabling researchers to build on the work of others, to scrutinise and refine the results, to contribute additional ideas and observations, and to formulate new questions and theories. As the Royal Society notes in its report on Science as an Open Enterprise,[1] ‘openness is intrinsic to the progress of science’. Journals play a vital role in facilitating that progress, as key channels of communication which also help to build up the ‘invisible colleges’ of researchers working in fields of common interest.
1.4. The ways in which journals fulfil their core functions have been transformed over the past twenty years, as a result of changing technologies, but also the combined efforts of publishers, editors, and researchers themselves. So have the behaviours and attitudes of researchers both as producers and consumers of the information that journals contain. The UK has been in the lead in both developments. It is a global centre for the publishing of research; publishers based in the UK are responsible for over five thousand journal titles, and a fifth of the articles published globally each year. The UK’s prominent position derives in part from its long tradition of publishing by learned societies, and more recently the development of close relationships between them and other publishers. UK publishers in both the commercial and the not-for-profit sectors were among the first to make full-text articles available online in the 1990s; and they have remained at the forefront of innovation. They make a significant contribution to the British economy, to export earnings, and (not least through the surpluses used by learned societies to fund their scholarly activities ) to the performance and standing of the UK research community.
1.5. UK researchers have also been among the leaders in taking advantage of the enhanced provision of e-journals: it is estimated that the number of downloads by readers in UK universities has been growing at over 20% a year,[2] and the UK research community has led key initiatives in developing new ways to exploit the benefits of new technologies. But while welcoming the increases in access to a larger number of journals and articles than ever before—at any time of day, anywhere where they have access to the internet—researchers want more. They want to be able to use the latest tools and services to enable them to analyse, organise and manipulate the content they find, in order to help them work more effectively in their quest for new knowledge; and the broader benefits that wider, faster access would bring.
1.6. Moreover, while researchers working in universities or large research institutes have enjoyed significant increases in access, others—including researchers working for organisations that cannot afford to purchase licences for large packages of journals but also the growing range of non-specialists who are interested in the results of research—have not seen the same fruits of increases in access. Indeed, they can find it difficult to secure access to research literature without paying up to £20 or more for ‘pay-per view’(PPV) access to a single article.
1.7. The principle that results of research that has been publicly funded should be freely accessible in the public domain is a compelling one, and fundamentally unanswerable. Effective publication and dissemination is essential to realising that principle, especially for communicating to non-specialists. How to achieve that in a sustainable way in an internet world is the key challenge that this report seeks to address. This report therefore considers how the research communications system might evolve so that access to research publications might be increased, with the aim of maximising the benefits arising from the investments in research and from the work of researchers.
1.8. The current Government’s position on access to research literature and the findings of research is set within the context of its broad objective of increased transparency.[3] There is some tension, however, between greater transparency and access on the one hand, and the objective of generating financial returns from the intellectual property created by researchers on the other; and a recognition that some of the results of research have to be protected from disclosure for commercial or other reasons. The Government also recognises the need to sustain the high standing and performance of the UK research base, and the high standards of peer review with which its success is closely associated. Finally, it recognises that there are limits to what can be achieved in the UK alone: action to promote access to research publications requires collaboration with international partners.
1.9. A key feature of the international environment over the past decade has been the growth of the open access movement. That movement has many different strands, and definitions and distinctions have become increasingly important as it has grown: between access without payment to a version of a publication through a repository (often called green open access) on the one hand, or to the version of record via the journal’s own platform (often termed gold open access) on the other; and between the removal of the payment barrier giving a right to read the article (sometimes termed gratis open access), and the removal in addition of most of the restrictions on use and re-use of the article (sometimes referred to as libre open access). The key points here are that there are different routes to open access, and that it is not just a matter of removing payment barriers, but of rights of use and reuse. Progress has not been as rapid as many had hoped, but it is clear that we are already moving towards a regime in which more content is made accessible free at the point of use to more people, in the UK and across the world.
1.10. It was in this context that David Willetts, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, held a round table in March 2011 at which representatives of the research, library and publishing communities from both the UK and the US considered measures that might be taken to improve access to research publications. Following that meeting, it was decided that a working group should be established to examine the current position with regard to access to research findings; to identify the mechanisms and key principles that would support the objective of improving access; to establish a shared vision; and to agree on a programme of action. It was also agreed that the working group would have to take account of the views and interests of the full range of stakeholders, and that it should therefore seek to proceed on a collaborative basis. After initial discussions in the summer of 2011, the Working Group was formally established in October 2011, sponsored by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Research Councils UK, and the Publishers Association. The Chair was Dame Janet Finch; our terms of reference and a full list of members are at Annex A.
1.11. The digital revolution continues to bring profound change in the social and political, as well as the information environments. Our report comes at a time when there is increasing interest in issues of openness, transparency and trust across a wide range of sectors. We believe that it is essential that the research community as a whole, but also all those in society at large who have an interest in research and its findings, should benefit from the technological and other changes that enable easier and wider access to information than ever before. That is the way to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of research itself, but also its social and economic value and impact.
1.12. In seeking to fulfil the remit passed to us, we have focused on measures to speed process of transition to wider access, and on how to achieve that in a sustainable way. For we are clear that, however it is done, communicating research costs money, and that judgements about the most appropriate channels and mechanisms for increasing access are in part judgements about costs and benefits; and about who meets the costs and how.We have therefore been guided by four principles.
- i. Access: our aim is to increase access to the published findings of research produced in the UK and the rest of the world for the benefit not only of researchers but also for the many people and organisations—in the public, commercial and voluntary sectors, as well as in society at large—who have an interest in those findings.
- ii. Usability: there are now nearly two million peer-reviewed articles published in journals each year, along with huge volumes of monographs, reports working papers and other relevant information. In order to be able to use them effectively, researchers and others need help to navigate their way around and to interpret the inexorably-increasing volumes of research literature; and to be able to the full range of the latest tools to enable them to organise, analyse and manipulate the content relevant to their work.
- iii. Quality: UK researchers are world-leading in the quality as well as the quantity of the work they produce. Their standing is underpinned by systems to ensure that they have effective and high-quality channels through which they can publish and disseminate their findings, and that they perform to the best standards by subjecting their published findings to rigorous peer review. Neither the quality and standing of the UK research community nor the underpinning of high-quality publishing channels must be put at risk.
- iv. Costs and sustainability: the costs of research communications constitute a relatively small but nevertheless significant component in the overall costs of research. Those costs must be kept in check; but at the same time it is important that in seeking change, we do not put at risk the fundamental functions and purposes of a research communications and publishing system that operates in the interests of researchers.
- 1.12. We have also been conscious throughout our work that the UK and its research community are but a part of a wider ecology. UK researchers produce just over 6% of the peer-reviewed papers published each year; and nearly half of them are produced in collaboration with colleagues from overseas. Research and its communication are activities which transcend geographical boundaries; in an internet world more so than ever. Our concern, therefore, is not just to ensure that the UK’s research is accessible across the world, but much more broadly that the world’s research is accessible across the UK. This important factor has significantly influenced our recommendations.
- 1.13. Individuals and organisations in the UK have played prominent roles in global moves to increase access over the past two decades. It is vital that in seeking to sustain its leading edge as a research nation, the UK should continue to fulfil that prominent role, for the benefit of researchers and all who have an interest in their work, across the world.
- ↑ Royal Society, Science as an Open Enterprise, 2012, available at: http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/science-public-enterprise/
- ↑ E-journals: their use, value and impact: final report, Research Information Network, 2011.
- ↑ Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth, 2011, p.76; David Willetts, Public Access to Publicly-Funded Research, Speech to the Publishers Association, , 2 May 2012.