THE IMPACT OF FREE, OPEN AND PUBLIC ACCESS ON THE VISION LITERATUREPamela C. Sieving1 and Bette Anton2 for The Association of Vision Science Librarians3

1National Institutes of Health Library 2Fong Optometry Library, University of California Berkeley 3 spectacle.berkeley.edu/~library/AVSL.HTM

WHAT IS FREE? OPEN? PUBLIC ACCESS?

Free Access:Electronic access to text at no cost to reader.Traditional copyright.Archiving by publisher.Immediate or delayed (i.e. free back issues).

Open Access (Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing):All users granted right to access, use, copy, distribute, display and make derivative works.Users must respect attribution of authorship.Permanent accessible archiving.”A vision, not a business model” (J Neal, Columbia)

Public Access Often misunderstood as “free.”

Traditional Academic ModelInstitutional subscription costs often >$2K/article. Free labor for costly journals? [T.C. Bergstrom]

NIH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY

REFERENCES: 1. Anton B: Issues and impacts of the changing nature of scientific

communication Optom Vis Sci 2003 80:403-102. Liesegang TJ, Schachat AP, Albert DM: The Open Access Initiative in

scientific and biomedical publishing. Am J Ophthalmol 2005; 139:156-67.3. Directory of Open Access Journals www.doaj.org4. Open Access Bibliography www.arl.org/pubscat/pubs/openaccess/

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

PERMISSIONS:Publisher controls…Any academic use permitted…Author self-archives

WHEN CONTENT IS FREE:Immediately……Selectively (HINARI)Delayed by 1-12 monthsNever

COPYRIGHT IS A BUNDLE OF RIGHTS THAT:•Affect dissemination of an intellectual productProtect the product from unauthorized changeTransfer to publisher may not protect the authorCan be managed to foster academic goals

Requested, not required.NIH-funded research only.Accepted in peer-reviewed journals.Authors specify embargo length.Publishers may authorize shorter embargo and replace manuscript with published version.Fulfills reporting requirement.

NIH-Funded Research Content 2003-04*

Vis Neurosci 60% Am J Ophthalmol 13%Mol Vis 59 Ophthalmology 12Exp Eye Res 49 Surv Ophthalmol 12IOVS 46 Cornea 11Vis Res 35 J Glaucoma 10Prog Ret Eye Res 34 Br J Ophthalmol 5Curr Eye Res 31 Graefes Archiv 4Optom Vis Sci 21 J Refr Surg 4Arch Ophthalmol 19 Retina 4J Ocul Pharm Ther 17 Clin Exp Ophthal 2

Overall: 15% of eye and vision-related articles publishedin 2003-04 resulted from NIH-funded research.

(* source: PubMed search, pcs; search strategy available)WHAT DOES COPYRIGHT ACCOMPLISH?

WHO PAYS?Subscriber/Library: SubscriptionSociety members: DuesGrant agency: Page charges ($500-$2500)

Researcher: Page charges ($500-$2500)

‘FREE’ CONTENT IN Medline:PubMed CentralFree full text filterTransparent institutional subscription

SELECTED NEW COMMUNICATION MODELS

WASHINGTON DC PRINCIPLES FOR FREE ACCESS TO SCIENCE (2004) Scholarly nonprofit publishers committed to change ARVO is a signatoryPUBMED CENTRAL (2000) Electronic archive for life science journals Unrestricted access, permanent accessibilityBioMed CENTRAL (2000) Publisher of open access journals 25 million downloads Funded by institutional membership or author feesPUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE (2000) Nonprofit organization with goal of making scientific and medical literature a resource for the whole world.BERLIN DECLARATION ON OPEN ACCESS (2003) Immediate, permanent, free online access; institutional archives

ARVO 2005

WOULD COMPLIANCE AFFECT YOUR ACCESS?

RECOMMENDATIONS: Know your publication options and rights as an author.

Consider more than impact factors.

Support sustainable models of scholarly communication.