How to build a business case for an Open Access policy - Report and podcast

New JISC report shows how universities can work out how much they could save on their profit and loss accounts as well as increasing their contribution to UK plc when they share their research papers through Open Access

The report is written by Alma Swan for JISC and was launched 25 February 2010.

The ‘modelling scholarly communication options: costs and benefits for universities’ report is based on different types of university. It shows how universities might reduce costs, how they can calculate these saving and their greater contribution to society by following an Open Access route.

Neil Jacobs, programme manager at JISC says, “This is the first time that universities will have a method and practical examples from which to build a business case for Open Access and to calculate the cost to them of the scholarly communications process. For example working out the value of researchers carrying out peer-reviewing duties or the comparative costs of the library handling of journals subscribed to in print, electronically, or in both formats.

“As universities such as Edinburgh, Salford and UCL lead the world to mandate self-archiving and adopt Open Access policies, this report gives evidence to help universities make informed decisions about how their research is disseminated. There are still issues to overcome and the benefits of adopting an Open Access route can be seen through economies of scale, the more researchers disseminate their work through this route the greater the benefits.”
 

Further information and download of the report is available here.

Podcast with Neil Jacobs and Alma Swan

Listen to the podcast with Neil Jacobs and Alma Swan on the report on how to build a business case for an Open Access policy.