1. The UK experience of offsetting
Liam Earney

2. Jisc’s negotiations for offsetting agreements
Context
Current Jisc open access activity
Why do we want offsetting agreements?
The approach taken by Jisc Collections
Experiences with offsetting agreements
Challenges
Conclusions

3. Context

4. Jisc Open Access Support Service
Support throughout an article’s lifecycle from submission to use
Submission
Select journal
Check compliance
Acceptance
Pay publisher
Deposit in repository
Policies
Decision support
Negotiations
Notification
Publication
Report on compliance
Maximise impact
Use
Record impact
Report
Discovery and access
Reporting tools
Usage reports
Community professional support
Open Access

5. Why is this important to you?
National strategy of open access to scientific publications and research data in Slovenia 2015−2020
6.4 Article Processing Charges of an open access publication
“the Article Processing Charges (APC) of an open access peer-reviewed article in an open access scientific journal and in a hybrid scientific journal […] are eligible costs for reimbursement during the period of the research”
“The organisations managing consortia for access to paid scientific information […] should strive for more favourable Article Processing Charges of open access […] to prevent double payments to publishers of hybrid scientific journals.”
“Joint negotiations with publishers of open access journals regarding Article Processing Charges of open access articles should be carried out for the consortium of Slovenian research organisations to ensure economically most favourable publishing.”

6. Why does the UK want offsetting agreements?
UK HEIs create significant number of OA articles as a result of UK policies
OA is expanding its scope, scale and reach
However, progress is lumpy—fast in some areas, slower in others
Initially, there will be minimal impact on global subscription levels for hybrid journals from UK APCs
Total cost of journals system to UK universities will increase
RCUK and other funding will only cover part of the cost for some of the future
What are we doing now to make this manageable?
03/12/2018

7. Jisc Collections approach
Two distinct issues
The cost of APCs in pure and hybrid gold OA journals
The combined cost of APCs and subscriptions in hybrid journals
“Total cost of publication”
We targeted number 2 first
03/12/2018

8. Theoretical rise in Combined Costs
What happens when we just add APC costs to subscriptions without overall control mechanism
03/12/2018

9. Government Response to Finch Report
The Government “….looks to the publishing industry to develop innovative and sustainable solutions“ :
“….a meaningful proportion of an institution's total [article processing charges] with a publisher to be offset against total subscription payments with that publisher".
"Government welcomes efforts by Jisc Collections to develop sustainable funding models that establish a relationship between the payment of APCs (and the costs of administering them) and subscription fees for an institution.“
Letter from Rt Hon David Willetts MP to Dame Janet Finch, 23 January 2014
- Demonstrated support of policy makers
- Clearly linked APCs and Subscriptions together in the context of implementation of Finch
- Emphasised the role of Jisc Collections
- Provided a timeframe for action with the expectation of progress by the time of RCUK’s review of it’s policy later in 2014
03/12/2018

10. Total APC expenditure 2010–14 for 23 HEIs
The growth in APC payments has continued to rise year on year, with 2014 seeing 2.7x more expenditure than Even removing a high-spending outlier, the increase was 2x. Trend for 2015 indicates a slower rate of growth, but still 40-50% for most institutions
Collecting the information is a challenge, Jisc services in this area are improving the capacity of the sector and indeed Jisc to track spend and make rational decisions about what to spend, what to negotiate, where to spend it.
So currently Jisc, globally has taken the lead in collecting this information, and Jisc’s activity is actually dependent on us successfully developing these services.
(Source: Jisc Collections)

11. Experiences with offsetting

12. Negotiation objectives
Priorities for negotiations on the combined cost of subscriptions and APCs:
Cost efficiency - minimise/remove additional costs to institution
Compliance - help/enable institutions to comply with funder policies regardless of whether they are choosing gold or green
Administrative efficiency - minimise the burden on institutions of implementing and managing OA payment schemes
Transition - implementing schemes that facilitate a real and sustainable transition to open access
Open Access

13. Experiences
Working on offsetting proposals since start of 2014
Agreements are pilots
Need to monitor changing environment
Need to see how effective the agreements are
A range of agreements in place:
Institute of Physics
Royal Society of Chemistry
Sage
Taylor and Francis
Wiley
Springer from October

14. Experiences
A variety of schemes
Models have different impact based on publisher
Offsetting APC spend against subscription costs
Credits against APCs based on total expenditure
APC vouchers based on level of subscription spend
“Flipped models” – subscription fees pay for APCs, small additional fee to cover access to content
Discounts of up to 90%

15. Challenges and conclusions

16. Challenges
Complicated policy environment
RCUK, HEFCE, H2020
Uncertain research funding in UK
Reviews of UK policy outcomes
Managing expectations
Extra spend happening now
But only 1 negotiation cycle for journal agreements
How quickly can we achieve meaningful results?

17. Challenges Hybrid publishers refusing offsetting agreements
Retreat from hybrid in absence of offsetting
Increase in support for Green route
Sustainability
Administrative burden
New systems, workflows, data requirements
Incentivising researchers and publishers
Price sensitivity of authors?
Take up of offers by institutions and authors

18. Conclusions
Open access is a journey not an event

19. Around 157,000 articles published by UK authors in 2014
Conclusions
Still much to do…
Around 157,000 articles published by UK authors in 2014
Percentages of UK articles available OA in 2014, up to 12 months after publication
Open access through repositories
11.7
Open access through wholly OA journals charging fees
9.3
Open access through wholly OA journals not charging fees
2.1
Open access though partially OA journals charging fees
6.5
Open access though delayed release by journals
8.7
Not open access
61.7
Open Access

20. Conclusions
Open access is a journey not an event
Too early to be certain of implications and impact
Data is sometimes contradictory
Ongoing interest in the progress of offsetting schemes
Some agreements show it can be done
Are the success of offsetting schemes and the fate of hybrid open access linked to each other?

21. Thank you
Liam Earney
Director of Jisc Collections