Improving compliance with the OA mandate: a work-in-progress report from the Wellcome Trust

Berlin 7 meeting, Paris

2nd- 4th December 2009

Robert Kiley, Head of Digital Services & Acting Head of Library

Wellcome Library, Wellcome Trust

r.kiley@wellcome.ac.uk

Overview

• Wellcome Trust’s OA policy

• Compliance data

• What needs to be done to improve levels of compliance Funders Researcher/institutions Publishers

OA at the Wellcome Trust: policy

All research papers – funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust – must be made freely accessible from the PubMed Central and UKPMC repositories as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication

How can Wellcome researchers comply with OA mandate?• Route 1

Publish in a open access/hybrid journal if available – preferred route (and often the only route)

• Route 2 If Route 1 is not available, self-archive the author manuscript (including

changes from peer review process) and make that available from PMC & UKPMC within 6 months of publication

• If a publisher offers neither route then: Author can suggest revision to the journal’s copyright agreement –

boilerplate language provided on our website – and see if the publisher will accept this

Look for an alternative publisher

Wellcome Trust: compliance with mandate• Around 43% of Trust-funded research papers are available in UKPMC

within 6 months of publication but…95% of journals used by Wellcome-funded authors have a “Wellcome-

compliant” publishing option.

Papers published between Nov 06 – Mar 2009

% of papers in PMC

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

40.00

45.00

50.00

Nov

-06

Jan-

07

Mar

-07

May

-07

Jul-0

7

Sep

-07

Nov

-07

Jan-

08

Mar

-08

May

-08

Jul-0

8

Sep

-08

Nov

-08

Jan-

09

Mar

-09

Month

Co

mp

lian

ce (

%)

% of papers in PMC

Improving compliance with mandate: Actor 1: Funders

Improving compliance with mandate – role of Funders• Funders must be explicit about how researchers and institutions can

access funding for OA Develop guidance about inclusion of OA publications costs within indirect costs; include

specific line in grant application forms to include publication costs (direct costs) Or set up dedicated budget (e.g. the Wellcome approach)

• Monitor compliance & enforce sanctions Actively monitor compliance

Following letter from Wellcome to VC’s significant there was a 52% increase in author depositions

When a repeat application is successful, funding should be withheld until all previous (eligible) publications are in UKPMC

• Communication Demonstrate the benefits of OA to the researcher (as well as the research community

more generally)

New services at UKPMC – Grant Reporting“My Impact Report” “My Grant Report”

New services at UKPMC – Text mining

Results of text mining the full-text

New services at UKPMC – Citations tab

Improving compliance with mandate: Actor 2: Researchers and institutions

Improving compliance with mandate: role of researchers & institutions

• Better communication Institutions to make OA a clear priority Arrangements for meeting OA fees to be effectively communicated

• Improve access to OA funds Institutions to ensure OA publishing costs are requested as direct

and indirect costs when applying for research funds Ensure there is a consistent approach to paying fees Establish dedicated budgets to meet OA costs Develop mechanism to split OA fees proportionately between

funders

Improving compliance with mandate: Actor 3: Publishers

Improving compliance with mandate – Publishers (1)

1. Clarify and standardise OA/self archiving policies

Develop a metadata standard/XML schema – using standardised nomenclature – to describe policies

Policies should be at the journal level OA options should be available to all –

not limited to specific funders Make information about OA policy

available in a consistent place – such as within the “Instructions to authors”

..and why clarity is required

• Number of publishers still have no OA policy Sherpa estimate that 8% of publishers have no OA policy

• Nuances of policy – bewildering to the researcher No fee, no embargo – but full & immediate OA (e.g. BMJ research

papers) No fee, full OA, but 6 months embargo (e.g. Rockefeller Press) Author-side payment – fully Wellcome compliant (e.g. Elsevier, Wiley) Author side payments – NOT Wellcome compliant (e.g. BRILL) Self-archiving – must archive author version (e.g. AAAS ) Self-archiving – must archive publisher version (e.g. NEJM) Self archiving – not WT compliant (embargo too long) (e.g. ASN)

/

Improving compliance with mandate – Publishers (2)

2. Simplify process for authors who wish to select an OA option

Provide clear information – using animated walkthroughs, video etc. – explaining the OA process

Establish and staff an OA mailbox – openaccess@publisher.com

Create and maintain FAQ Share good practice Build OA option into manuscript

submission workflow

Wellcome Trust: Funding portion of Journal Publishing Agreement

18

Wellcome Trust registered articles per month - Elsevier

05

10152025

303540

4550

Jan Feb Mar AprMay Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

May Jun Jul

2008 2009

20 articles per month 34 articles per month

Change in Journal Publishing Agreement 60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Num

ber o

f arti

cles

% o

f elig

ible

arti

cles

• The average number of Wellcome Trust articles registered articles has increased from 20 (~27% of eligible articles) to 34 (~45% of eligible articles)

Improving compliance with mandate – Publishers (3)3. Make explicit the relationship between

subscription costs and uptake of OA option This will give confidence that funders and

institutions are not paying access fees twice (“double dipping”)

4. Provide tools for institutions to track status of OA articles

5. Adopt less pejorative language for OA option

“Author pays” unhelpful (and typically inaccurate)

Bottom line

• OA policies and infrastructure (e.g. UKPMC) in place Looking to offer UKPMC service to other European research funders

• Need to build on these developments and take action on improving compliance – by working with the three key actors – funders, researchers/institutions and publishers Trust working with RIN and others to developing transition models

• The full potential of OA can then begin to be realised

Further information

Web: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/openaccess

Blog: http://ukpmc.blogspot.com

Email: openaccess@wellcome.ac.uk