Open Access RepositoriesCalum Land

BioMed Central Ltd

CODIST-II

2nd May 2011

Why Open Access?

• Enhances scholarly communication

• Research has more impact

• Increases the institute’s and author’s profile

• Readers get better access to funded research

• Improves visibility and impact of an institutions research

• No subscription barriers

Routes Towards Open Access

Gold Open AccessPublishing in an open access journal Þ Full and Optional Open Access journals

Green Open Access Depositing articles in an Open Access repository

Subject repositories– PubMed Central– ArXiV

Institutional repositories– E.g. UNECA Institutional

Repository

Benefits of an Open Access Repository

• Centralised solution for an institute’s research output• Showcases this research output to a wider, global

audience• Increased citations for authors• Potential collaboration tool• Enhanced funding opportunities• Maximizes the dissemination of research• Provides new ways for permanently archiving and

preserving valuable work

Open Repository

• Hosted digital repository service, operated by BioMed Central

• Built on the DSpace open-source platform• Dramatically reduces time and costs involved in setting

up, maintaining and developing a repository• Hosting in UK ensures maximum international exposure

Open Repository

Case Study

Why did MSF want a repository?

• To showcase operational research• Needed to be freely available, particularly for

healthcare workers and policy makers in developing countries

• To strengthen reputation as a medical organisation by showcasing scientific output

• Due to a high staff turnover, a repository was needed to maintain MSF’s “institutional memory”

How has it helped MSF?

• Achieved goal of highlighting scientific output of an organisation better known for its humanitarian work

• Enhanced scientific reputation• Improved research collaboration opportunities with

outside organisations, such as the TB Union• Helped to recruit medical workers• Improved support of fund-raising campaigns

How can OA publishers work with Institutional Repositories?

• Many institutions now have OA repositories in place

• Populating the repositories is often a challenge• Open Access journals provide a stream of immediately available

OA content for the repository• BioMed Central is automating this via feeds using the SWORD

protocol

Connecting open access journals and open access repositories

Institutional Repository(DSpace/Eprints

etc.)

Publisher

Manuscript

Author final

version

1

2

Manual deposit to IR

Institutional Repository(DSpace/Eprints

etc.)

Manuscript

SWORD Import

SWORD Export

Published articles

from institution’s

authors

Published article

Automated deposit to IR via SWORD

University of Stellenbosch

BioMed Central Open Access Package

Making Open Repository available to developing countries

For whom

• BioMed Central’s Open Access Package is aimed at any institution that is in a country classified by the World Bank as a low-income economy or lower-middle-income economy

Package details

• BioMed Central Foundation Membership (as detailed above)

• Open Repository

• Automated Article-Deposit (SWORD)

• Repository PR

• Cost of £2,500 per annum

Benefits of the Package

• The BioMed Central Open Access Package will enable institutions to show their commitment and support for open access publishing and provide them with the tools to support open access publishing and self-archiving at their institution

Thank you