National licence negotiations advancing the open access transition – a view from the UK

Liam Earney

doi:10.1629/uksg.412

Abstract

Jisc Collections has had agreements with open access (OA) publishers since the mid-2000s. In 2014, following the UK government’s response to the Finch Report, it started to target hybrid OA via ‘offsetting agreements’ that covered both subscriptions and article processing charges for OA.

This article will provide a status update on OA negotiations in the UK in the context of the UK’s progress towards OA. It will look at some of the concerns about the progress of OA in the UK, how negotiations have evolved in response, and will look at prospects for their future direction.

The author presented this paper at the UKSG Annual Conference in Glasgow in April 2018. His co-presenter Anna Lundén and her colleagues give a view from Sweden in this companion Insights article: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.413

References

1Earney L, Offsetting and its discontents: challenges and opportunities of open access offsetting agreements, Insights, 2017, 30(1), 11–24; DOI: 10.1629/uksg.345 (accessed 21 March 2018).
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2Jisc, Our role in open access: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/content/open-access/our-role (accessed 22 March 2018).
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3Jisc, UK ORCID consortium membership: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/orcid (accessed 22 March 2018).
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4Jisc, Publications Router: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications-router (accessed 22 March 2018).
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5Lawson S, Report on offset agreements: evaluating current Jisc Collections deals: year 2 – evaluating 2016 deals, London, Jisc: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5383861.v1 (accessed 22 March 2018).
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6Jubb M et al., Monitoring the transition to open access. London, Universities UK: http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2017/monitoring-transition-open-access-2017.pdf (accessed 22 March 2018).
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7RCUK Block Grant Allocation 2015–2016: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/2015-16-blockgrantallocation-pdf/ (accessed 22 March 2018).
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8Jubb M et al., ref 6.
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9Jubb M et al., ref 6.
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10Whilst Jubb et al. (ref. 6) quotes an increase of 20% for the period, it is important to note that these are not like-for-like figures and do not take account of institutions signing up to larger content packages.
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11Shamash K, 23 August 2017, Article processing charges in 2016, Jisc scholarly communications blog: https://scholarlycommunications.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2017/08/23/article-processing-charges-in-2016/ (accessed 22 March 2018).
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12OA2020 initiative: https://oa2020.org/ (accessed 22 March 2018).
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13At a Westminster Higher Education Forum event on 20 February 2018, Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive Designate of UKRI, announced that there would be a review of UK OA policy, referencing cost sustainability and value for money as areas for scrutiny, Publishers Association tweet: https://twitter.com/PublishersAssoc/status/965928102932156416 (accessed 22 March 2018).
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14A ‘read and publish’ agreement is one where, for a fee, an institution will have access to a publisher’s content as well as having all of their authors’ articles made OA on publication.
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15UUK Open Access Coordination Group: http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/research-policy/open-science/Pages/uuk-open-access-coordination-group.aspx (accessed 22 March 2018).
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National licence negotiations advancing the open access transition – a view from the UK

Abstract

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