Open access for the people

From April 1st this year anyone in receipt of public funding from one of the UK research councils will be required to publish their findings by an open access route. The new policy is causing an almighty row, with researchers complaining about the cost, humanities scholars railing against an agenda set by scientists, publishers and learned societies fretting about lost of income and the House of Lords criticising the haste with which the new rules have been brought into play.

Stephen Curry for The Guardian.

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Posted: March 22, 2013
Tags: house of lords Open Access Research councils UK Stephen Curry The Guardian

Are Some Current Open Access Mandates Backfiring on the Intended Beneficiaries?

The OA bargain is becoming a bit more fraught as more people get involved and as founding concepts are stress-tested by practical matters. If the OA movement remains dogmatic about the details, and is not willing to compromise or improve on ideas established years ago and never thoroughly validated on a large scale, it run some serious risks of losing support in the wider world.

Times Higher Education.

Leading history journal editors take on the Research Councils UK

What is really needed, though, is a thorough analysis of optimum embargo periods by discipline and/or a plan for monitoring the effectiveness of different embargo periods in different disciplines.

Historians revolt against RCUK’s embargo periods and the CC-BY licences which would not fit to their way research is done, they say.

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Posted: January 9, 2013
Tags: cc-by embargo licenses RCUK Research councils UK

Clarification of the new OA policy from the RCUK

Peter Suber on embargoes and the role of green Open Access.

See also comment on this by Stevan Harnad, who is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal,and is also Affiliate Professor in Electronics and Computer Scienceat University of Southampton, UK.

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Posted: August 23, 2012
Tags: Open Access Peter Suber RCUK Research councils UK stevan harnad

The Research Councils UK on the benefits of Open Access

We are, in conversation with researchers and institutions, in the process of developing the operational details of the policy and will share the details as quickly as they become available.

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Posted: August 10, 2012
Tags: benefit Open Access Research councils UK

RCUK announces new Open Access policy

Research Councils UK (RCUK) has today, 16th July 2012, unveiled its new Open Access policy. Informed by the work of the National Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings, chaired by Professor Dame Janet Finch, the policy at once harmonises and makes significant changes to existing Research Councils’ Open Access policies.