1. The Finch Report and its Recommendations
Michael Jubb
Research Information Network
British Academy
Humanities and Social Sciences Learned Societies and Subject Associations Network
22 October 2012

2. The Question and the Process
How to expand access, in a sustainable way, to peer-reviewed research publications
Group of 13 representatives of universities, libraries, funders, learned societies, publishers
The exam question was not and is not a simple one (if it were, the Group would not need to have undertaken the work that it did)
Note that the qn excludes data (Royal Society report)
Fair also to say that the Group devoted the vast majority of its attention to journal articles and conf proceedings (the dominant mode of publication across all subject areas except the creative arts)
Recognise of course that monographs remain of crucial importance in HSS; and that they are in trouble. Will say a little about that in a moment
Process involved some pretty robust discussion, because
the interests and perspectives of the different stakeholders are not entirely congruent
the answers are not straightforward
Analysis based in the main on earlier research, but some financial modelling was commissioned especially for the study

3. The Political Context innovation transparency returns on investment
a key principle
‘the results of research that has been publicly funded should be freely accessible in the public domain’
These issues are not going to go away

4. The Global Picture 2m. research publications a year
increasing at c.4% a year
25k scholarly journals
most subscription-based
8k open access (?)
growth of hybrid journals
commercial publishers and learned societies

5. Scholarly Communications and the Success of the UK Research Community
120k publications in 2010
2.8k humanities
8.9k social science
4.3k business
strong competitive position
more articles and more citations per researcher and per £ spent
more usage per article published
citation impact and share of highly-cited papers second only to US
factors underpinning this success
One of the factors is the heavy engagement of UK researchers in all aspects of the business of publishing, and the strong role of learned societies in the publishing business

6. Monographs
library expenditure on monographs declining in real terms, while expenditure on serials is increasing
rising prices and declining print runs
no clear open access business model as yet, but some experiments
OAPEN-UK project (
No doubt that monographs are in crisis, and that the growth in the numbers of articles published each year is part of the reason for that

7. Mechanisms and Success Criteria
more UK articles available globally
more global articles available in the UK
sustain high-quality research
sustain high-quality services to authors and readers
financial health of publishing and learned societies
costs to HE and funders
open access journals
repositories
licence extensions
3 groups of criteria
Access for more people, globally as well as in the UK, to more publications
Sustain both high-quality research and the publishing services that underpin it
Costs and revenues
3 mechanisms (we cd think on no others)

8. Conclusions no single mechanism meets all the success criteria
a mixed economy
transition to OA should be accelerated in an ordered way
tensions between interests of key stakeholders, and risks to all of them
costs
global environment
promote innovation and sustain what is valuable

9. Recommendations clear policy direction towards Gold open access
better funding arrangements, focusing responsibilities in universities, not funders
minimise restrictions on use and re-use
expand and rationalise licensing
HE and NHS
SMEs, public libraries
deal with subscriptions and APCs in a single negotiation
experiment with OA monographs
develop repository infrastructure
deal carefully with embargo periods (especial risks in HSS)

10. Michael Jubb www.researchinfonet.org
Thank you Questions?
Michael Jubb