Table Of ContentPositions on creating an Open
Access publication market which is
scholarly adequate
Positions of the Ad Hoc Working Group Open Access
Gold in the priority initiative "Digital Information" of the
Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany
February 2015
Contents
Aims ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Summary ............................................................................................................................... 5
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Open Access ............................................................................................................ 7
1.2 Open Access publication market............................................................................... 8
1.3 From subscription to Open Access ........................................................................... 9
1.4 Key aspects of the transformation process ..............................................................11
2. Positions ...........................................................................................................................12
2.1 Quality assurance and transparency ........................................................................12
2.1.1 Quality assurance ..............................................................................................12
2.1.2 Transparency ....................................................................................................12
2.2 Finance and business models .................................................................................13
2.2.1 Open Access gold .............................................................................................13
2.2.2 “Hybrid” model ...................................................................................................15
2.2.3 Open Access components of subscription contracts ..........................................17
2.3 Article processing charges .......................................................................................18
2.3.1 Level of article processing charges ....................................................................18
2.3.2 Billing article processing charges .......................................................................19
2.3.3 Accounting methods ..........................................................................................19
2.3.4 Multiple authors and article processing charges ................................................20
2.4 Background conditions ............................................................................................21
2.4.1 Metadata and interfaces ....................................................................................21
2.4.2 Visibility .............................................................................................................21
2.4.3 Statistics ............................................................................................................22
2.4.4 Legal aspects ....................................................................................................22
2.4.5 Technical aspects ..............................................................................................23
Appendix: Checklist ..............................................................................................................24
Imprint ..................................................................................................................................29
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Authors
Name Institution
Dr. Christoph Bruch Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office
Dr. Gernot Deinzer University of Regensburg; University Library
Kai Geschuhn Max Planck Digital Library
Petra Hätscher University of Konstanz; Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM)
Kristine Hillenkötter Goettingen University; Goettingen State and University Library
Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für
Ulrike Kreß
Arbeit; Bibliothek
Heinz Pampel Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office
Dr. Hildegard Schäffler Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library)
Dr. Ursula Stanek Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Dr. Arnulf Timm Goettingen University; Goettingen State and University Library
Forschungszentrum Jülich;
Dr. Alexander Wagner
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Contributors
Name Institution
Dr. Agathe Gebert GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Kristina Hanig Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg; University Library
Dr. Marc Herbstritt Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik
Dr. Katja Mruck Freie Universität Berlin; Center für Digitale Systeme (CeDiS)
Dr. Annette Scheiner University of Freiburg; Freiburg University Library
Frank Scholze Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT); KIT Library
Dr. Matthias Schulze University of Stuttgart; Stuttgart University Library
Olaf Siegert ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Regine Tobias Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), KIT Library
Marco Tullney TIB/UB Hannover
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Berlin School of Library and Information
Paul Vierkant
Science
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Aims
The Alliance of German Scientific Organisations has been promoting the development of
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Open Access via its priority initiative "Digital Information" since 2008. The “Ad Hoc Working
Group Open Access Gold” was set up to assist with the process of transformation from
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subscription to Open Access in 2013.
The w orking g roup was set up to activel y help lay the groundwork for transforming, analysing
and ev aluating key parameters of the Open A ccess publication market. The working group
also deals with the practical challenges involved in transforming scientific publishing, and
considers the opportunities and challenges involved in concluding contracts on O pe n Access
article processing charges (APCs).
This position paper is the working group's first result. It is directed at scholarly institutions
dealing with aspects of Open Access publishing, and bundles and evaluates the
requirements for contracts based on the publication cost model. It also raises the question of
linking subscriptions and Open Access and gives the institutions targeted ideas for
formulating their Open Access strategies. It aims to create transparency and sustainability in
the field of scho larly publishing in the interests of the sciences and to avoid perpetuating
mistakes of the past.
1
http://www.allianzinitiative.de/en/start.html (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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http://www.allianzinitiative.de/en/core-activities/cross-disciplinary-issues/open-access-gold.html (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Summary
Open Access aims to use the opportunities offered by the digital world and make scholarly
knowledge openly available and reusable online. Academic institutions, research funding
agencies and governments worldwide have signed up to promoting Open Access.
As well as establishing Open Access repositories to make traditionally published articles
available (Open Access green) to universities and non-university research institutions, in
recent years publishers, learned societies and academic institutions (hereinafter referred to
as “providers”) have successfully started publishing Open Access journals and monographs
(Open Access gold).
Open Access journals devolve their funding and business models from readers to the
institutions or funding organisations of authors. Commercial providers usually charge what
are known as article processing charges (APCs) to publish articles in these Open Access
publications. Academic institutions and funding organisations provide funds to cover these
APCs. There are also many Open Access journals which are financed and published directly
by academic institutions and do not charge APCs.
The challenge academic institutions face is switching from a subscription-based publication
system to Open Access actively in the interests of science. This means the funds which were
formerly raised for the subscription-based publication system will need to be transferred step
by step.
There are five factors which define the foundations of the transformation process from
subscription to a scholarly adequate Open Access publication system, as follows:
Transparency: in the Open Access market, providers' services, prices and other
terms must be openly documented and verifiable.
Competition: in the transformation to Open Access publishing, it is in the interests of
academic institutions to encourage competition in the publications market.
Sustainability: permanent access and extensive reuse rights are needed if
researchers are to be able to work with publications in virtual research environments.
Economic viability: we need to establish not just whether Open Access publishing
can be funded, but also ensure there are efficient business processes between
funding organisations, academic institutions, publishers and Open Access providers.
Pluralism: when switching from subscription to Open Access, we need to consider
what the different disciplines involved need, including funding and business models
which differ from one specialism to another.
Based on these five factors, this position paper collects the current status about the business
relationship between academic institutions and Open Access providers. The paper looks at
requirements for contracts on APCs and assesses them; it also defines positions on linking
subscription and Open Access and gives academic institutions suggestions for formulating
their Open Access strategies.
The positions formulated are intended to make academic institutions and their Open Access
advocates aware of strategic areas for action when dealing with publishers, their business
and funding models.
This position paper describes a number of core statements in detail, as follows:
Open Access and traditional subscription models must not be considered separately
from one another.
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We should not support hybrid models until the providers have sorted out the problems
involved.
Providers need to ensure that the level, development and terms of APCs are
transparent and openly documented.
APCs must be reasonable and verifiable for the services rendered by the providers.
We advise academic institutions and funding bodies to set upper limits here.
Contracts between providers and academic institutions as well as contracts between
providers and authors must not include any non-disclosure agreements.
Providers should support central invoicing for academic institutions. Standardised
procedures for handling invoices should be established in close collaboration with
academic institutions.
Academic institutions must ensure that Open Access journals funded via academic
sponsors can be operated sustainably at the institution concerned.
Providers must use standardised licences and formats to ensure that Open Access
publications can be reused technically and lawfully.
Providers need to ensure that Open Access publications receive optimum visibility.
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1. Introduction
1.1 Open Access
Open Access aims to use the possibilities the digital world provides and make scholarly
knowledge openly available and reusable on the Internet. Academic institutions, research
funding agencies and governments worldwide have committed themselves to Open Access,
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and many scholarly authors are in favour of the idea.
Open A ccess allows research results to penetrate widely beyond specialist boundaries, helps
make research transparent and so helps communicate findings to society, politics and the
economy . The openness of Open Access publications also encourages people to reuse them
and so allows researchers to use innovative working methods like text and data mining.
As defined by the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and
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Humanities" , signed by the German science organisations in 2003, ther e are a number of
requirements Open A ccess publications must meet, as follows :
"The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable,
worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the
work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any
responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship (community standards, will
continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use
of the published work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small numbers of printed
copies for their personal use."
"A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the
permission as stated above, in an appropriate standard electronic format is deposited (and
thus published) in at least one online repository using suitable technical standards (such as
the Open Archive definitions) that is supported and maintained by an academic institution,
scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to
enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving."
The use of internationally applicable and standardised licences like the Creative Commons
“attribution” licence (CC-BY) enables the reuse of research results in a legally safe manner
according to the “Berlin Declaration”.
The growth of Open Access is powered by the growing importance of the issue to science
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policy. Th e government of the Federal Republic of Germany considers the issue as "highly
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important" and is working on implementing an O pen A ccess strategy for Germany.
3
Dallmeier-Tiessen, S. et al. (2011). Highlights from the SOAP project survey. What Scientists Think about Open Access
Publishing. Online: http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260 and Dallmeier-Tiessen, S., & Lengenfelder, A. (2011). Open Access in
der deutschen Wissenschaft – Ergebnisse des EU-Projekts „Study of Open Access Publishing“ (SOAP). GMS Medizin –
Bibliothek – Information, 11(1-2), Doc 03. Online: http://doi.org/10.3205/mbi000218 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003). Online:
http://openaccess.mpg.de/68053/Berliner_Erklaerung_dt_Version_07-2006.pdf (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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For an overview of developments in Europe, see: European Commission. (2011). National open access and preservation
policies in Europe. Analysis of a questionnaire to the European Research Area Committee. Luxembourg: Publications
Office of the European Union. Online: http://doi.org/10.2777/74027 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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See the Federal Government's position paper : Zur Mitteilung der Europäischen Kommission „Eine verstärkte Partnerschaft
im Europäischen Forschungsraum im Zeichen von Exzellenz und Wachstum". 13 February 2013. Online:
http://www.bmbf.de/pubRD/EFR_BReg_Positionspapier_deutsch.pdf (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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See: Coalition agreement for the 18th legislative period between CDU, CSU and SPD. Online:
https://www.cdu.de/sites/default/files/media/dokumente/koalitionsvertrag.pdf (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Open Access policies are becoming a major part of researchers' everyday life: if they are
funded by the European research programme HORIZON 2020, for example, they are bound
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to make their publications available in Open Access.
As well as establishing Open Access repositories to make traditional published articles
available (Open Access green) to universities and non-university research institutions, in
recent years publishers, learned societies and academic institutions (hereinafter referred to
as “providers”) have successfully started publishing Open Access journals and monographs
(Open Access gold).
How far Open Access has come varies from one discipline and publication culture to another.
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While it is an established publication strategy in STM , in the social sciences and humanities,
in which monographs dominate, Open Access is only just beginning. This position paper will
therefore focus on Open A ccess journals, which are quality - assured journals whose articles
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are made available digitally and openly online as soon as they appear. Commercial
providers generally charge publicati on fees – known as article processing charges (APCs) –
to publish articles in these journals. To fund these APCs, academic institutions and funding
organisations provide so-called Open Access funds. There are also many Open Access
journals which are financed and published directly by academic institutions and often do not
charge APCs.
1.2 Open Access publication market
The Open Access publication market is gaining momentum. Even commercial providers have
acknowledged the growing importance of the issue in terms of science policy and founded
Open Access journals accordingly. Additionally, traditional subscription-based journals are
increasingly being transformed to Open Access.
Traditional publishers like Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and Informa (among others, Taylor &
Francis) have set up Open Access divisions in recent years. Also, Open Access providers
have been acquired by traditional providers (e.g. BioMed Central was purchased by Springer,
and Frontiers by the Nature Publishing Group). Newly founded Open Access providers, like
PLOS and Copernicus, have also established themselves. As new providers have entered
the market, new publication models have also become more important. One feature worth
mentioning here are so-called “mega-journals” covering a broad spectrum of subjects. The
most prominent of these is PLOS ONE, which published 31,500 articles in 2013 alone,
making it the largest journal in the world.
Of the journal articles indexed in the SCOPUS database, around 11% are published –
originally – in Open Access journals. In the Web of Science database they amount to about
9%. Additionally, there are articles subject to embargo that are not made freely available in
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the first instance (SCOPUS 5.2%, Web of Science 6.4%).
8
European Commission. (2013). Guidelines on Open Access to S cientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020.
Online: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020 -hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf
(accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Science, technology and medicine
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Formulating the conditions which need to be met before we can call Open Access open is one of the key concerns of this
position paper.
11
Laakso, M., & Björk, B. (2012). Anatomy of open access publishing: a study of longitudinal development and internal
structure. BMC Medicine, 10, 124. Online: http://doi.org/10.1186/1741 -7015-10-124 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Many commercial providers have already begun offering “hybrid” publication models, i.e.
journals whose traditional subscription-based business model has been combined with
another source of funding: individual articles from the journal are made publicly available in
its electronic version against payment of publication charges. Academic institutions are very
uneasy about this model, as these hybrid journals run the risk of double financing (“double
dipping”). The costs of “freeing” individual contributions are usually incurred as well as
subscription costs, and there are very few cases in which providers make up for this
sufficiently.
If we add the articles in hybrid Open Access journals (SCOPUS and Web of Science 0.7%
each) to those which appear from the outset as Open Access publications and those which
are time-delayed, the proportion of Open Access articles in SCOPUS is around 17% and in
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Web of Science somewhat more than 16%.
The sales made by the publishing industry from Open Access APCs have soared in recent
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years; one study indicates by 34% from 2011 to 2012.
The growth of Open A ccess has led to science dealing intensively with the nascent Open
A ccess publication market. A study commissioned by a number of international science
organisations on developing an effective market for Open Access APCs attracted
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considerable attention wh en it appeared in 2014. This study aim s to help scholarly
organisations consider wh at to do in terms of accepting Open A ccess APCs: it distinguishes
between action s which require switching to Open Access gold as soon as possible and those
resulting in a slower process of conversion, but in which other developments, such as price
trends, are influenced more in the interests of science .
The study favours scenarios which combine Open A ccess APCs with price reduction
mechanisms. To this end, journals sh ould be divided either into different levels of quality
and/or service or the funding bodies should only accept costs per publication up to a defined
cap limit. The study raises objections when it comes to applying the so - called “big deals”
(packages of journals) to the Open Access gold market.
It follows from this that we need to look at the emerging Open Access market for Germany in
more depth, economically speaking. Scholarly organisations working together internationally
play a key role here.
1.3 From subscription to Open Access
Publishing is switching from subscription-based to Open Access journals step by step: thus,
when designing the process of transformation from subscription to Open Access, we need to
keep our eye on the publication market as a whole, still dominated by subscription models as
it is. Scholarly institutions are therefore endeavouring to enshrine Open Access components
in contracts on subscription models, as the German Research Foundation (DFG)'s “Alliance
Licences” have been promoting since 2011. Incorporating a binding Open Access
12
Laakso, M., & Björk, B. (2012). Anatomy of open access publishing: a study of longitudinal development and internal
structure. BMC Medicine, 10, 124. Online: http://doi.org/10.1186/1741 -7015-10-124 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
13
Outsell. (2013). Open Access: Market Size, Share, Forecast, and Trends. Online:
http://img.en25.com/Web/CopyrightClearanceCenterInc/{1eced16c -2f3a-47de-9ffd-
f6a659abdb2a}_Outsell_Open_Access_Report_01312013.pdf (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Björk, B.-C. & Solomon, D. (2014). Developing an effective market for open access ar ticle processing charges. Online:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@policy_communications/documents/web_document/wtp055910.p
df (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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component in the “Guidelines for the Purchase of Licences funded by DFG” , which define
the framework for the “Alliance Licences”, ensures authors and their institutions retain the
right to make publications in licensed journals freely available via an Open Access repository.
Since 2013, “Alliance Licence” negotiations have also included Open Access gold
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conditions.
Linking subscription and Open A ccess aims to induce provide rs to deal with the demands of
Open A ccess publishing and optimise their publishing policies.
Enshrining Open Access components in a subscription - based context can create a wide
range of potential scenarios, pursuing both the green and golden Open Access models
combined with subscription ones.
With this in mind, the transformation of the subscription -based publication market to Open
Access must guide our thoughts when negotiating contracts in a subscription context and , as
far as possible, be included in contracts, at institutional, regional and national level. The key
concern here should be not merely encouraging scholarly publications to be freely available,
but also employing and reorganising the resources available to ensure that this
transformation can be made as cost-neutrally and sustainably as possible, while at the same
time avoiding the emergence of parallel funding structures.
To this end, it is essential that academic institutions do not consider what they spend on
subscriptions and Open Access separately. Publ ication funds make it possible, for example,
to record the costs of Open Access publishing systematically, making them a key tool when it
comes to redirecting funds which are currently spent on subscription fees but which should
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be redirected to Open Access publishing in future. These funds provide central services to
authors for the handling of APCs and assist authors in covering the publication costs of Open
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Access publishing (or some of them).
The fact that academic institutions are concerned to design dealing with publication charges
efficiently, while simultaneously breaking down the barrier s for authors to publishing in Open
Access journals funded by publication charges , is also a source of tension. Academic
institutions are increasingly signing contracts with providers, which set the level, billing
procedures and other terms and conditions of publishing papers by their staff in Open
Access programmes. Like the “big deals” (packages of journals), such contracts entail the
risk of reducing competition, as assuming the costs without complications means authors
have no incentive to choose a publisher based on the amount of APCs. This tension between
efficiency and competition is one aspect to bear in mind when dealing with APCs.
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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2012). Merkblatt Überregionale Lizenzierung. DFG-Vordruck 12.18 - 03/13. Online:
http:www.dfg.de/formulare/12_18/12_18_de.pdf (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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OA gold conditions in “Alliance Licences" usually inclu de discounts on processing charges of the providers concerned
which authors from institutions invo lved in Alliance Licences can use for Open Access publications by those providers'
Open Access presses. To see the Open Access components negotiated in Alliance Licences, go to:
http://www.nationallizenzen.de/open -access/open-access-rechte.xls/view (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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See Schimmer, R. (2012). Zum nachhaltigen Umgang mit Open -Access-Publikationsgebühren. In: Arbeitsgruppe Open
Access der Schwerpunktinitiative Digitale Information (Ed.). Open -Access-Strategien fur wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen.
Online: http://doi.org/10.2312/allianzoa.005 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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Eppelin, A., Pampel, H., Bandilla, W., & Kaczmirek, L. (2012). Umgang mit Open-Access-Publikationsgebühren – die
Situation in Deutschland in 2010. GMS Medizin - Bibliothek - Information, 12(1-2), Doc04. Online:
http://doi.org/10.3205/mbi000240 (accessed: 07.08.2014)
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