1. Open Access Publishing Calum Land BioMed Central Ltd CODIST-II 2 nd May 2011

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

3. 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 207 open access journals >90,000 peer-reviewed OA articles published All research articles published under Creative Commons license Costs covered by article processing charge (APC)

4. What is Open Access?

5. The old world of access to knowledge

6. The new world of access to knowledge

7. Open Access Publishing Traditional journals –take ownership of the research –provide access to subscribers only Open access journals –have no subscription barriers –take advantage of the economics of the internet to allow universal access –research is openly licensed to allow reuse

8. 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)

9. Who Pays? Open access journals do have costs Publication fee is a very small fraction of the cost of doing research Most open access publishers, including BioMed Central, give waivers to developing countries In other cases, open access journals have central support, so no charges for authors or readers

10. 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 Central’s charges (~$1680) are at the lower end

11. Routes Towards Open Access Gold Open Access Publishing in an open access journal  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 Instutional Repository

12. Open Access Repositories

13. Open Access repositories Supports the Green Route Allow archiving of articles published both in traditional journals and open access journals Traditional publishers typically only allow author version to be archived Many require a 6 or 12 month embargo period Open access articles can be deposited and made immediately available

14. Open Access Publishing, then and now… 20112000 And many more…

15. African Journals Online

16. The internet has the potential to radically expand access to knowledge

17. Digital divide or digital bridge?

18. African internet connectivity is improving dramatically

19. Cellphones

20. Source: African Mobile Factbook 2008 International Telecommunications Union report (2009) “The increase in the number of mobile cellular subscriptions over the last five years has defied all predictions and Africa remains the region with the highest mobile growth rate” Growth of mobile phones in Africa

21. Mobile phone networks are already aiding scientific data gathering

22. “Many African postgraduates lack access to, and the skills for working on, computers.” Association of Commonwealth Universities 2010

23. ICT Levels International Telecommunications Union report (2009) Although the number of Internet users has grown faster than in other regions: “Africa’s 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”

24. “The University Access Program is an initiative designed to catalyze Internet usage in Sub Saharan Africa Universities through the provision of affordable laptops, wireless access and bandwidth.”

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

26. BMC/Nature 10K fun run in support of ComputerAid

27. As connectivity improves, other access barriers become significant

28. Open access journals do away with access barriers

29. BioMed Central and Africa

30. OA Waiver Fund

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

32. Growth in manuscript submissions from Africa to BioMed Central

33. Manuscript submissions from Africa as fraction of total

34. Top 10 journals for publications from Africa in last 12 months

36. How can Open Access benefit Africa?

37. 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

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

39. 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

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

41. 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

42. Harvard University (and other members of Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity) More than 100 mandatory institution- wide open access policies world-wide http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/ http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/ But still very few in Africa… Many universities are now requiring open access

43. Open Access Advocacy

44. Institutional Membership Supporter membership Institution pays a flat fee, authors pay a discounted Article Processing Charge Prepay membership Institution covers cost of publication centrally, at a discounted rate Shared Support membership Institution and researchers share the cost at a discounted rate

45. 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

46. 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

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

48. Member web page screen shot

49. Open Access journals

50. Malaria Journal - an open access journal case study

51. Malaria Journal homepage

52. Annual growth in submissions to Malaria Journal

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

54. Impact Factor trend

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

56. Parasite to Prevention - Malaria Journal’s 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

57. Other high profile open access journals relevant to tropical diseases

58. Gateways

59. The latest open access research on global health issues

60. The benefits of open access for the developing world

61. Thank you