Open Access Publishing in Africa Calum Land BioMed Central Ltd EIFL Online Workshop 21 st October 2011

Agenda What is Open Access? Digital Bridge or Digital Divide? BioMed Central and Africa How can Open Access benefit Africa? Open Access advocacy An Open Access journal case study

What is Open Access?

The old world of access to knowledge

The new world of access to knowledge

Characteristics of Open Access The publisher charges directly for the service of publication/ dissemination Research permanently available via the Internet No barriers to access such as subscription costs Licensed so as to allow redistribution and reuse (Creative Commons) Archived in an internationally recognized repository (e.g. PubMed Central)

Business Model Article-processing charge (APC) covers: Editorial: handling of manuscripts Technical: development, maintenance and operation of online journal system Production: Formatting and mark up of articles, inclusion in indexing services Marketing: Making sure readers and authors know about the journal Customer service: Responding to authors/readers Web technology is used to keep costs low BioMed Centrals charges (~$1680) are at the lower end

Open Access Publishing, then and now… And many more…

Where is Open Access in 2011? There are over 6400 open access journals in the DOAJ Over 1000 open access journals are indexed by ISI Open access to research is now mandated in over 110 institutions and by 47 funders Submissions to OA journals grew by over 35% between 2009 and 2010 Open access firmly part of the mainstream…....

Open access article share

The internet has the potential to radically expand access to knowledge - Digital divide or digital bridge?

African internet connectivity is improving dramatically

Many African postgraduates lack access to, and the skills for working on, computers.

ICT Levels International Telecommunications Union report (2009) Although the number of Internet users has grown faster than in other regions: Africas ICT penetration levels in 2009 are still far behind the rest of the world and very few African countries reach ICT levels comparable to global averages

Computer Aid has provided over 180,000 PCs to where they are most needed in more than 100 countries across Africa and Latin America.

BMC/Nature 10K fun run in support of ComputerAid

As connectivity improves, other access barriers become significant

Open access journals do away with access barriers

BioMed Central and Africa

About BioMed Central Largest publisher of peer-reviewed open access journals Launched first open access journal in 2000 Became part of Springer in 2008 Now publishes 217 open access journals >100,000 peer-reviewed OA articles published All research articles published under Creative Commons license Costs covered by article processing charge (APC)

OA Waiver Fund

All African countries receive automatic fee waiver, except: Libya Namibia South Africa Algeria Botswana Equatorial Guinea Gabon

Growth in manuscript submissions from Africa to BioMed Central

Manuscript submissions from Africa as fraction of total

Top 10 journals for publications from Africa in last 12 months

New Developing World Website

Open Access Africa Conference

How can Open Access benefit Africa?

UN Millennium Development Goals Reduce child mortality, improve maternal health Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability Develop a global partnership for development

Who needs access to the results of research? Public Professionals Researchers

Research on global health issues has expanded greatly Developing world health issues are finally attracting substantial research spending Private philanthropic initiatives have played an important role

Why do research if it is not accessible where it is most relevant?

Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council US National Institute of Health Howard Hughes Medical Institute European Research Council EC Seventh Framework Program Many research funders are now requiring Open Access

Harvard University (and other members of Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity) More than 100 mandatory institution- wide open access policies world-wide But still very few in Africa… Many universities are now requiring open access

The Need for Advocacy

Open access policies Data courtesy of

Call to action….

BMC Foundation Membership A new type of membership created for developing nations Designed to support Open Access advocacy Same benefits as other institutional memberships No cost

Benefits of Foundation Membership A BMC Webpage A Member welcome pack Membership usage reports Member logo/badge for use on institution website PR of Membership

Criteria for Foundation Membership Institution should have a Open Access policy in place Institution should have submitted at least 5 articles in BioMed Central journals in the last year

Member web page screen shot

Open Access journals

Malaria Journal - an open access journal case study

Malaria Journal homepage

Annual growth in submissions to Malaria Journal

Top 20 African countries publishing in Malaria Journal (no. of articles)

Impact Factor Trend

A highly accessed Malaria Journal article 15,000+ downloads 31 citations

Parasite to Prevention - Malaria Journals scientific conference Inaugural conference October 2010, Edinburgh, Scotland Full bursaries for participants from low- income countries, supported by Gates Foundation Next conference 2012, probably in Africa

Other high profile open access journals relevant to tropical diseases

Open Access and the Developing World By providing unrestricted access to research, open access offers an opportunity to enhance scientific knowledge and output in developing countries OA provides access to medical and health literature to those directly impacted by the diseases BioMed Central operates a waiver fund, enabling researchers in developing countries to publish their work in OA journals without incurring the cost of usual APC

Thank you