EPT urges developing country research needs in letter to new Obama appointees

A letter from the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development to recent research appointees to the Obama administration: Professor John Holdren, Professor Harold Varmus, Professor Jane Lubchenko, Professor Stevan Chu.

January 1^st 2009

Dear Professors,

It is with great pleasure that we note your recent appointments in the new US administration. The appointment of yourselves, together with other prestigious scientists to advise on energy, the environment, health and conservation issues, so critical to the planet, is extremely encouraging to scientists everywhere. We write as Trustees of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development¹, working with developing country scientists and publishers to promote equality of access to essential research publications, and wish you well in your endeavours.

The resolution, through science, of urgent global problems is a priority for the safety and economic progress of all nations, yet cannot be achieved by any country in isolation. We write to you, therefore, to urge you to ensure that access to publicly funded research is free to all potential users, particularly to those in low economy regions where the costs of commercial journals are prohibitive, yet where the problems are most severely felt. Without an international perspective on disease control, climate change and other global problems, there will always be limited success, since scientific knowledge in the developing world is a crucial element to the implementation of appropriate and sustainable solutions.

The international movement towards the twin approaches to achieving free and open access to research findings² – open access institutional repositories (current total 1239)³ holding deposits of published, peer-reviewed articles, plus open access peer-reviewed journals (current total 3812)⁴ – is already well established. These collectively provide open access to several million refereed published research articles. Additionally, there are now 31 open access mandates from universities and research institutions requiring the deposit of their own research article output, whether institutionally or externally funded, in their own institutional repositories, as well as 30 open access mandates from major research funding organisations⁵ requiring the deposit of articles arising from their financial support.

As measurement tools become established, the usage of such material is now seen to be spectacularly high, indicating the very real need for access to research previously locked in high-priced journals, accessible only to those able to afford them.

It remains of great importance, now that the groundwork is laid, that these developments are supported and extended to all research in every discipline. Already the NIH Open Access mandate exists, together with other mandates in the USA, in Europe (including the European Research Council and 6 of the 7 UK Research Councils), Asia, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, many requiring deposit of research publications in low cost and interoperable Institutional Repositories. Barack Obama’s CTO forum requesting proposals for top priorities for the administration ranks access to publicly funded research information as the 12^th most important, as of today. It is clear from this widespread activity that there is universal support by the global research community for the free exchange of essential scientific information and data, accelerating progress and enabling advantage to be taken of powerful new web technology.

We write in the hope that you will be able to use your good offices to ensure the adoption of Open Access policies by all federal agencies, thus encouraging further equivalent policy adoptions throughout the world. Environmental protection, the cure and treatment of malaria, HIV/AIDS, the containment of emerging new infectious diseases, the conservation of biodiversity and energy are all urgent issues particularly affecting the low economy regions. They cannot be solved without international scientific cooperation, depending as it must on free and open access to research publications.

We wish you much success in your new appointment and urge that the wider needs of the developing world will be high on your list of priorities. Open Access to research findings by mandated deposit in Institutional Repositories is a very low cost and achievable aim with disproportionately large benefits.

With our good wishes for 2009 and your future work,

Sincerely yours,

Barbara Kirsop, Secretary/Trustee,

On behalf of Trustees of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development

EPT - Electronic Publishing Trust for Development and EPT Blog

1. BOAI – Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002
2. ROAR – Registry of Open Access Repositories
3. DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals
4. ROARmap – Registry of Open Access mandates
5. OSTI E-print Network, - links to servers, sites and documents of interest to the Department of Energy’s research

7-Year usage statistics from Bioline International

Bioline International has made available the adjusted statistics of usage of its partner journals from 2002 to the end of 2008. Over the last four years alone, the requests for full text papers has increased four-fold, from 1.1 million to 4.2 million, while total hits grew from 2.7 million to 12.15 million, showing an impressive rate of usage of material from journals published in developing countries.

Many congratulations to the Bioline teams at the University of Toronto and the Reference Center on Environmental Information in Brazil, and to the work of the collaborating publishers! Great information for the start of 2009 and a clear indication of the importance of making research from the developing world globally available.

Cause for celebration!

Professor Wendy Hall, CBE, has been appointed DBE in the UK New Year Honours List for services to science and technology. As a prime mover in web science both at the University of Southampton, in Europe and in her global support of Open Access, it is greatly fitting that she has been honoured in this way. We salute her! And we thank her for her quiet support of the use of the Web in the promotion of science, including Open Access to research findings. Dame Wendy, many congratulations from the EPT!

All at EPT wish researchers everywhere a wonderful, peaceful and productive 2009!

Recording three month's progress for OA

In early September this year I was giving a couple of presentations on OA and its impact on developing countries (the Inter Academy Panel workshop in Cuba, (http://www.academiaciencias.cu/English_1/Working%20information/Events/talleropenaccess2008en.pdf) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival of Science in Liverpool, UK, http://www1.the-ba.net/bafos/events/showevent.asp?EventID=18) and in the course of preparation of figures for my Power Point presentations I collected information showing the level of OA-development in the developing and emerging countries, particularly with regard to the numbers of Institutional Repositories that had been set up. Now, I have revisited those figures to see what has changed. And it’s good news.

In early September, the total number of IRs (as shown by the Registry of Open Access Repositories, http://roar.eprints.org/) was 1122. Of these, 173 had been set up in developing countries (15.5%). I rechecked these figures on December 16^th and found that the total number of IRs had risen by 112 to 1234, of which the number in developing countries was now 262 (21%).

While, in this ~3 month period, the number of registered IRs had increased at a rate approaching 1/day, the supporting funder/institutional/departmental mandates - that have such a positive impact on filling the repositories - had also risen from 56 to 60, with 11 more under development (see http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/). Moreover, in the same period the number of OA journals had increased by 242 (see Directory of Open Access Journals http://www.doaj.org/). OA was firing on all cylinders and things were moving ahead strongly.

	IRs (% in developing countries)	Mandates	OA Journals
September 2008	1122 (15.5%)	56	3567
December 2008	1234 (21%)	60 (11 pending)	3809

Furthermore, as reported elsewhere on this blog, usage of these OA resources was quite spectacular, demonstrating the real need that exists for this research information currently inaccessible to many. And, as we also learn daily (see Peter Suber’s OAN), with the arrival of Open Access a whole raft of associated developments are being funded and coming on line – new applications, search/support/networking improvements, IR workshops, software development workshops, open data workshops, policy meetings and conferences . . . As, following the invention of the motor car, so roads, garages, driving licenses, parking arrangements, car salesmen, maps and associated engineering services all emerged, so we now see a vibrant hum of OA activities around the world.

Only the most blinkered of us could imagine any kind of return to the old ring-fenced system that has caused such problems for developing country research (and research everywhere). And the research communities in the developing world blink their eyes as the light at the end of the tunnel begins to dazzle with new research opportunities.

This blog raises a glass half full of good wishes to all OA advocates and the researchers they work to support!

Posted by Barbara Kirsop, Trustee EPT

Events celebrating Open Access Day in eIFL countries

Thanks to Iryna Kuchma, eIFL OA Program Manager, (who posted the following record of events on the eIFL website http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa) we can see how widespread the celebration of OA has become:

Description

October 14, 2008 was the world’s first Open Access Day. The founding partners were SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science. Open Access Day helped to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public (http://openaccessday.org/). Information about Open Access Day activities in Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mozambique, Poland, South Africa, Sudan.

Azerbaijan: Khazar University Library Information centre translated "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber into Azeri language (http://www.khazar.org/library/news.shtm#news1). Khazar University Library Information Center administrates Khazar University Institutional Repository (KUIR) - the fist institutional repository in Azerbaijan showcasing the research outputs of Khazar University staff (http://dspace.khazar.org; more information about the repository is here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_18_khazar-university). Contact person: Tatyana Zayseva, Library Information Centre Director, tzayseva[@]gmail.com.

Lithuania: Lithuanian research libraries consortium together with Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science and the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education organized the workshop about Open access in the Lithuanian Academy of Science on October, 14, 2008. Workshop program is available online (http://www.lmba.lt/doc/seminaras_spalio14.doc) and information about open access is also on the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium website (http://www.lmba.lt/OA/liet/oa.htm). Contact person: Dr. Gintare Tautkeviciene, Kaunas University of Technology, eIFL Open Access country coordinator, gintare.tautkeviciene[@]ktu.lt.

Macedonia: On the occasion of the International Open Access Day, Metamorphosis Foundation sent an open letter to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia calling them to instigate an initiative for systematic, prompt and efficient resolution for the acute lack of educational contents available online (e-contents) in the local languages in Macedonia (http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1264/61/lang,en/). Contact person: Bardhyl Jashari, Metamorphosis Foundation, bjasari[@]soros.org.mk.

Moldova: A blog about Open Access in Romanian language and a directory of Open Access Moldavian resources were launched on the Open Access Day: http://oarm.blog2x2.net/. Natalia Cheradi, eIFL Open Access coordinator in Moldova, Consortium eIFL Direct Moldova, spoke about Open Access on the National Radio and National TV (TV-4 channel). Contact person: Natalia Cheradi, the Open Access Coordinator for Moldova, cheradi[@]lib.ase.md.

Mozambique: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, wrote an article about Open Access to be published in the national newspaper and participated in the Radio Mozambique show. She also translated "We Support Open Access Flyer" featuring a librarian, teacher, funder, student and patient advocate, into Portuguese language. Earlier this year Aissa Mitha Issak organised a workshop about Institutional Repositories and Open Access in Maputo, Mozambique. The major outcome of this workshop was a project on the shared open repository for Mozambique, gathering the intellectual production of the academic and research staff in the country funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and at the pilot stage covering three institutions. The University of Minho will assure the technical support. More information: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_17_workshop-on. Contact person: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, amissak[@]apolitecnica.ac.mz.

Poland: Bożena Bednarek-Michalska, eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Torun, Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries, translated into Polish "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber and "We Support Open Access Flyer"; different institutions put this information with Open Access Day icon on their portals and web-sites on October 14. Bożena Bednarek-Michalska sent letters to the ministries, Universities and other public institutions about Open Access. Web-sites about Open Access Day: http://www.ebib.info/content/view/1568/. ICM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling), Warsaw, Poland posted blog posts about Open Access Day: http://boa.icm.edu.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/ and http://creativecommons.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/.

South Africa: In celebration of Open Access Day, Durban University of Technology Libraries hosted an informal open session on the Institutional Repository and how researchers can get their research ready for submission into the Repository. Contact person: Pam Govender, pamgoven[@]dut.ac.za; Web & IT Support Officer, DUT Library, ML Sultan Library, http://library.dut.ac.za. University of Pretoria had an Open Access happening of which the message was "You are in good company if you support open access" with posters all over campus, buttons, a message on the university's main web page (http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=2843&articleID=997 a powerpoint slide show running constantly in the library (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/7550), students with OA t-shirts speaking to other students. Two open sessions on the open access research repository were organised and attended by 60 researchers from across faculty. Contact people: Monica Hammes, Assistant Director: Open Scholarship, Quality Assurance and UP Centenary Academic Information Service, University of Pretoria, Monica.Hammes[@]up.ac.za and Ina Smith, Digital Research Repository (UPSpace) Manager & eApplication Specialist, Department of Library Services, University of Pretoria, Ina.Smith[@]up.ac.za. University of Johannesburg Library and Information centre promoted Open Access day (UJ Science Librarian Blog: http://ujsciencelibrarianblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/open-access-day-14-october-2008.html and UJ Librarians News: http://ujlibrariansnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/open-access-day-october-14-2008.html). Contact person: Pavlinka Kovatcheva, Subject Librarian: Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus, pkovatcheva[@]uj.ac.za.

Sudan: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, published at the web-site of the Open University of Sudan (http://www.ous.edu.sd/) selected translations from English into Arabic about benefits of Open Access to contribute to the awareness raising among Arabic countries. These documents will be also disseminated via the web-site of the Ministry of higher education of Sudan. Contact person: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, abdalazizgabir[@]yahoo.com.

More information about events celebrating Open Access Day: http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Events_celebrating_Open_Access_Day.

We are pleased to announce that next year’s Open Access Week will be in October 2009, dates to be confirmed. To hear about the latest development please complete the form here: http://www.formspring.com/forms/?377428-uGOWZXQybK http://openaccessday.org/

Bioline spreads its wings!

Bioline International has now been working with publishers in developing countries for 15 years, helping to raise the visibility of the largely unrecognised research reported in their journals. There are now 70 journals from 17 countries using the Bioline platform and, because of the benefits of open access in terms of visibility, improved submissions, improved impact and even improved subscription levels to the printed versions, there is now a queue of other journals waiting to become partners.

Usage of the open access Bioline material rises year by year (in 2007, for example, there were 3.5 million full text downloads made by readers from both the developing world and the industrial nations and usage up to mid-2008 is equally encouraging) showing a real need for the information in the journals.

The joint initiative between the University of Toronto and the Centre for Environmental Research Information in Brazil is now launching a new Sponsorship and Membership program to increase the level of funding available in order to extend the numbers of journals on the system. Organisations or individuals may either become founding Sponsors by making a single donation, the level of which can be negotiated individually, or may become Members through an annual donation of $500. Already, a number of organisations have made such a commitment, recognising the importance of including regional research into the global knowledge pool.

As no charge is made to partner publishers for document management or site maintenance, all such donations will be spent directly in enabling poorly known journals published in developing countries to reap the benefits of open access and become part of the international scene.

Congratulations are due to the University of Toronto and the CRIA centre in Brazil for all their hard and dedicated work. Bioline has ‘come of age’. Any organisation or individual wanting to support the extension of this invaluable service can find out more at http://www.bioline.org.br/info?id=bioline&doc=support.

Posted by Barbara Kirsop

Yes, you can

On this momentous day, when America has returned the Democratic party to office by electing its first African-American President, Barak Obama, the world can look forward to changes in America’s approach in science. During his campaign, Obama announced that he planned to double investment in basic research, ensure more transparency in contracts, and make government data available to all online (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INo69f7f8bo). This intention, combined with his ‘can do’ philosophy, presages well for the open distribution and sharing of research data. His background in Kenya and Indonesia ensures an understanding of the need to redress the information-deprivation experienced still by researchers in the economically poor countries.

This message of renewed hope for greater openness in sharing information, comes at a time when there is growing evidence of the manifest benefits for individual researchers achieved by providing open access to their research output. The OptimalScholarship blog of Alma Swan, http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/2008/10/reasons-researchers-really-rate.html, recently provided yet another very encouraging story showing how deposit of articles in the Queensland University of Technology repository has significantly increased the downloads/impact/citation of deposited research articles. The QUT’s most prolific author, a chemist, Ray Frost, found that citations to his work increased from ~300 to 1200/year once he had deposited his papers in the QUT open access repository in 2004, as the charts below show.

So if you researchers out there want to make a difference, want your research to lead to new developments, want to raise your career prospects, the means are in your hands. Deposit copies of your published articles in your institutional repository, or publish in an OA journal in the first place. Yes, you can.

And if your institute is so behind the times that it hasn’t yet established an IR (remember, free software, quick to set up, free help to hand), please let the EPT know on ept@biostrat.demon.co.uk. We need to know of any difficulties (and of any successes too) in making your research as widely accessible as possible. There are people that can help, but they need to know the scale and kind of problems you face.

Posted by Barbara Kirsop