News
Reactions to UKRI consultation announcement
There has been a mixed, but largely positive, reaction to the UKRI’s consultation on open access policy. The UK Research and Innovation
consultation, which opened on 13 February and will close on 17 April, will ‘inform the development of a new open access policy, aimed at ensuring that the published outputs of research are widely and freely accessible to all.’ It is open to any group, organisation or individual with an interest in research and innovation to respond. UKRI says it ‘recognises open access as an important part of achieving maximum impact from public investment in research’. UKRI’s executive champion for open access, Duncan Wingham, said: ‘Maximising the re-use of publicly-funded research findings is central to UKRI’s ambitions for research and innovation in the UK. We encourage contributions from across the research and innovation landscape to the consultation,’ The proposed policy applies to peer-
reviewed research articles accepted for publication on or after 1 January 2022. These should be made freely and immediately available online through a journal, open access publishing platform or an institutional or subject repository. UKRI would also require articles to be made available with a license allowing maximum reuse. The proposed policy extends open
access requirements to include academic
monographs, book chapters and edited collections, whilst taking into account that the open access environment for long- form publications is different. Steven Inchcoombe, chief publishing
officer at Springer Nature, said: ‘This is a detailed consultation from UKRI that we are reading with interest and will respond to in due course. The transition to open access is something we fully support as it is a crucial part of the journey to open research and the wider benefits this will
“We are unlikely to get any clarity on the final policy until late 2020 at best”
bring to the research community. It is therefore too important to get wrong and so needs to be done in way which is inclusive and ultimately sustainable. ‘We remain firmly committed to working with all who share this vision of an open future as it is this which, we believe, will greatly speed up the advancement of science and academic research.’ Liam Earney, executive director for digital resources at the UK not-for-profit agency Jisc, added: ‘Jisc welcomes the opportunity to respond to the consultation. We particularly welcome
First US UP signs OA agreement for UK HE
Research and education not- for-profit Jisc has signed the first transitional agreement with a US–based university press. Non-profit publisher
Rockefeller University Press (RUP), a department of The Rockefeller University in New York City, has agreed to a deal with Jisc that negotiates open access (OA) agreements with publishers on behalf of all UK universities. The unlimited “read-and-
publish” transitional agreement covers RUP’s three hybrid journals, Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM) and Journal of
34 Research Information April/May 2020
General Physiology (JGP). The two-year pilot
agreement, which runs from March 2020 until February 2022, enables immediate open access for all UK higher education institutions that opt in.
There is no limit to the number of articles that may be published immediate open access during the agreement, as all publishing fees are included in a fixed price. Under the Jisc agreement,
participating UK institutions receive unlimited access to all content immediately after publication and articles
of corresponding authors affiliated with these institutions will be published immediate open access under a CC-BY license and directly deposited in PubMed Central (PMC). Kathryn Spiller, licensing manager at Jisc, who has worked with the university press to negotiate the agreement, said: ‘We are delighted that Rockefeller University Press is the first US–based publisher to join the group of independent publishers piloting a ‘read-and- publish’ agreement this year. ‘We hope this will encourage other US–presses and smaller
publishers to work with Jisc on transformative agreements.’ ‘RUP has long championed sustainable public access and is delighted to partner with Jisc to reduce the administrative burden on UK faculty and students who choose to publish their research in JCB, JEM and JGP,’ said RUP executive director Susan King. ‘We are pleased to be the first university publisher to sign the pilot agreement in the US, and we look forward to evaluating what we anticipate being a positive impact on the authors and readers at participating UK institutions.’
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the intent to harmonise policy across UKRI as far as possible, the emphasis on immediate and sustainable open access independent of the route (green or gold) and the inclusion of OA monographs. ‘The consultation is substantial and demonstrates considerable attention has been given to taking account of the many complex issues surfaced in the development of this draft policy. ‘We look forward to providing input
based on evidence from Jisc’s experience in the areas of licensing and copyright, innovation, institutional repositories, OA infrastructure and sustainability.’ Rob Johnson of Research Consulting, added in a blog post: ‘The proposals are broadly aligned with Plan S, with a delayed implementation date of 1 January 2022 for articles, but go beyond it in setting a deadline for 1 January 2024 for OA books. ‘The consultation document suggests UKRI hasn’t yet formed a clear view on many of the critical issues, such as the role of hybrid journals, transformative agreements, price transparency and licensing.
‘On the plus side, this suggests it is a genuine attempt to consult the community. On the downside, it means we’re unlikely to get any clarity on the final policy till late 2020 at best.’ See the full policy announcement and
consultation document at
www.ukri.org/ news/ukri-launches-consultation-on- open-access-policy/
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