UNESCO and Open Access

Transcription

1 UNESCO and Open Access 1

2 What is Open Access? Flexibility Freedom Fairness

3 Why Open Access? Emergence of digitization of information & the World Wide Web Potential impact of research is heightened Increased visibility & readership of scholarly material Higher Return On Investment (ROI) for funders of research Equitable economic & social development Intercultural dialogue

4 Positive growth of initiatives across the world to promote Open Access

5 Across all disciplines Anatomy of open access publishing: a study of longitudinal development and internal structure, Mikael Laakso and Bo-Christer Björk, BMC Medicine, 2012, 10: 124 1

6 Steady increase in establishing OA policies: Growth of OA mandates from March

7 And the resulting increase in visibility of research 500, , , , , , , ,000 Downloads 100,000 50,000 0 Oct-05 Jan-06 Apr-06 Jul-06 Oct-06 Jan-07 Apr-07 Jul-07 Oct-07 Jan-08 Apr-08 Jul-08 Oct-08 Jan-09 Apr-09 Jul-09 Oct-09 Jan-10 Apr-10 Jul-10 Oct-10 Jan-11 Apr-11 Jul-11 Oct-11 Jan-12 Apr-12 Jul-12 Oct-12 Jan-13 Apr-13 Jul-13 Oct-13 Jan-14 Apr-14 Jul-14 Growth in downloads of items in QUT eprints repository since birth of institutional mandate in

8 Yet, gap in nation-wide development: South America 9.80% Africa 4% Oceania 2.50% South America 5% Oceania 7% Africa 3% Asia 7% Europe 45% North America 17.90% North America 29% Europe 49% Asia 20.60% *An institution having n repositories is counted only once Worldwide proportion of repository organizations by continent as of Sept. 2014* Global distribution of OA policies as of Sept

9 Is Open Access publishing only for rich countries? < 1.5% contribution from Africa Open Access can have clear benefits for less developed countries, which need an unrestricted flow of scientific knowledge to support local research, the growth of their scientific communities and to be able to contribute to global research ICSU, 2014

10 Why is lack of Open Access a concern? 1) Library expenditure on journal articles; even among the elite universities.

11 Why is lack of Open Access a concern? 2) Contributors vs Consumers: Developing countries are the consumers of research produced by developed countries.

12 Why resolve to Open Access Policies? A policy Serves as a pillar around which administration and outreach programs can be focused as compared to low rate spontaneous deposit by mere resoluition. A collective voice which encourages self-archiving by authors and behavioral change leading to higher deposit rates & higher visibility of total research output of an institute. Policy effect on self-archiving habits of authors: Currently >3000 repositories registered with ROAR Release of BOAI

13 The effect of open access mandate strength on deposit rate: Stronger mandates increase deposits. With Without At time of acceptance PA- Public Access deposits; RA- Restricted Access deposits; At time of publication Unspecified Research impact is lost when a finding is not immediately made Open Access or when it is made Open access later than earlier. Thus, to be effective, mandates need to require immediate deposit upon acceptance.

14 UNESCO and Open Access UNESCO s mandate: Maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge: By encouraging cooperation among the nations in all branches of intellectual activity Overarching Objective 5: Build Inclusive Knowledge Societies Freedom of Expression and Media Development Knowledge Societies Development 1

15 UNESCO s Open Access Strategy After 2009, UNESCO was asked by the member states to develop an OA strategy for the organization During the 36 general Conference in October 2011 and adopted the Open Access strategy. Outlined Organization s work over 4 consecutive biennia.

16 Open Access is not NEW for UNESCO

17 UNESCO believes in: building inclusive knowledge societies: Knowledge societies are informed societies - To be informed & access to knowledge is the key - Openness is the only solution to improve access leveraging of new technological innovations to create knowledge societies - OA is technological innovation s most important resource UNESCO Considers: that Openness is essential in all aspects - content, technology and processes UNESCO understands: that Innovation and Openness are positively correlated

18 UNESCO as an Open Access Organization: We practice what we preach UNESCO itself has adopted Open Access Policy for the organization July 2013

19 What have we accomplished until 2013? Networked and Regionalized OA Organized Regional Consultations Organized Training Program for Open Journal Editors Gave UNESCO s patronage to Berlin 10 Policy Development Support Popularization and translation of Policy Guidelines document English; French; Spanish (published); Russian & Arabic (in translation) Bahasa Malay (in translation OA Policy promulgation support to Mexico and St. Vincent and Grenadine Indicator Development OA indicator for Latin America and Africa Technology improvement for Open Access ('mobilization' of OA access journal production and OA journal publication software comparison

20 Foster Enabling Environment for OA Curricula and Self Directed learning tools have been developed for Young researchers and Librarians are being tested Software that helps in creating repositories have been evaluated Best case practices on OA are being documented (SciELO)

21 : Global Open Access Portal - A one-stop shop for OA A knowledge portal to learn about the global open access environment Provides an overview of the open access framework in UNESCO member states Important publications on OA coming from different regions of the world Country-wise distilled knowledge on the status of OA Funding & deposit mandates Links to OA initiatives in the world Potential partners at the national &regional level Critical assessment of major barriers to OA in each country Provides an inventory of repositories

22 : Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources Four major purposes: Provides a single access point to different types of online scholarly resources published worldwide and freely available. Provides information about the quality and prominence of OA resources by indicating by what services or journal indicators they are covered Gives an overview of the Open Access scholarly production worldwide (for statistics purposes for instance) Demonstrates new ways of using the ISSN for compiling information from various sources. Extension of coverage during 2014

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24 What do we plan to do during ? Advocacy Create tools for OA policy development Support to UNESCO s move to set an example as an OA organization Bridging Continue consultations with Regional groups Cooperation to be strengthen with SciELO, Redalyc, Latindex, EU, OECD, Nordic Council of Ministers Capacity Building Populate SDL for researchers and Librarians in various parts of the world. Create a pool to trainers and back-stoppers Dissemination Good cases on Open Access

25 In the next four years ,UNESCO strategy will be guided by the following: 1. OA for post 2015 agenda: Opening pathways for development 2. Economics of Open Access: what lies beyond Gold or Green? 3. Open Access Indicators: Defining progress can t be one-off! 4. Enhancing capacities for Open Access: a supply side analysis! 5. Human rights based approach and Open Access: Right access or access right? 6. Impact factor: can Openness prevail over it? 7. Opening Development: Donors Considerations 8. Connecting Openness: What the Global North and Global South can learn from each other 9. Making GOAP a single window for Open Access Resources 10. Simplifying guidelines of Open Access Policy: Is it that complicated?

26 UNESCO has decided to divide Open Access across: Issues related to OA that only requires exclusive concentration (eg. Development of policy, rallying international support, bringing new governments on-board and development of new knowledge Issues that require servicing and support to continue forward (eg. Capacity building, networking and dissemination (viz. GOAP) Issues that can be done by our partners with limited support from us (OA awareness, etc.) Specific issues based on member countries request

27 In conclusion UNESCO will continue to provide its assistance to foster OA as an integral component of Open Solutions as per the approved strategy Advocacy, bridging, capacity building and dissemination will remain as the central line of its OA program development

28 «access to science is not only a social and ethical requirement for human development, but also essential for realizing the full potential of scientific communities worldwide and for orienting scientific progress towards meeting the needs of humankind» The World Conference on Science, 1999 held under the auspices of UNESCO and ICSU Lets Work Together b.neupane@unesco.org