Towards open-access publishing for science programmes

EU-funded research is meant to benefit society, so it is no surprise that the European Commission favours open access to scientific results. But the package of measures it announced in February to improve this access stopped short of the dramatic intervention in the science publishing market demanded by many research organisations.

While researchers complain that access to scientific results in journals is becoming ever more expensive and therefore restricted, the Commission has been impressed by the publishers’ argument that any sudden changes could damage the whole scientific endeavour.

Most publishers make their money through journal subscriptions, which means keeping control over who can read research papers. But they increasingly offer researchers the option, for a fee, of opening an article to all readers, either in the electronic version of the journal or by placing the paper in an open-access repository.

What the publishers fear most is that research funders will make open access publication of results a grant condition without covering their fees. This would drive researchers away from closed journals and encourage competition from cheaper publication methods, such as non-profit open-access journals. As well as being a commercial disaster, the publishers claim that this would undermine the system of scientific quality control that their journals carry out.

So the Commission intends to move tentatively towards open access publication of EU research results. Guidelines will be issued under the EU’s 7th framework programme for research (FP7) on the publication of research articles in open repositories, taking into account the conditions in different scientific disciplines.

"Both a mandate to deposit and recommendation to deposit are options to be explored," explained a spokesperson for Research Commissioner Janez Potoc?nik, following a stakeholder conference held on 15-16 February. "It is clear from the debate at the conference that experimentation is needed in these areas, as well as further dialogue with all interested parties."

While sector-specific guidelines may appear throughout FP7, the starting point is likely to be the ‘frontier’ programmes run by the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC scientific council favours the mandatory deposit of research results in open access repositories - ideally six months - but no later than 12 months after journal publication.

According to Fotis Kafatos, president of the ERC, guidelines will be drawn up as soon as possible for those disciplines where suitable repositories exist, ideally before the next call for proposals at the end of 2007. "The speed of obsolescence of knowledge and the availability of open access repositories vary widely across disciplines," he explained. "For these reasons the guidelines will have to be discipline-specific. For example, it is likely that uniform guidelines will be formulated for the life sciences, where open-access repositories are already operational," says Kafatos.

As far as money is concerned, the Commission will allow researchers to claim publication costs under their grants. "In principle, all publishing costs can be covered, but the details still need to be worked out," explained Potoc?nik’s spokesperson.

According to the Wellcome Trust, a large UK medical research charity that already operates an open access mandate, open access publishing costs on average $3,000 (€2,285) for each research article and consumes 1-2% of its total research budget. "We consider that is a marginal cost," commented Robert Kiley, head of e-strategy at the Trust.

Beyond this, the Commission intends to support work that will help open access run more smoothly, such as building links between repositories. It will also study the economics of scientific publishing in the hope of finding business models acceptable to researchers and publishers alike.

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

EU-funded research is meant to benefit society, so it is no surprise that the European Commission favours open access to scientific results. But the package of measures it announced in February to improve this access stopped short of the dramatic intervention in the science publishing market demanded by many research organisations.

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