Open access success: be inspired by over thirty compelling stories
Open access week 2011 is full of inspiration on the benefits of free immediate access to the results of scholarly research. Now more than 30 compelling stories have been collected together from across Europe showcasing the transformative effects of open access.
The stories have been commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, a Europe-wide initiative that supports the use and development of the technology infrastructure for higher education and research, of which Jisc is a member.
They come from over 11 countries and are told by a wide variety of stakeholders, from individual researchers and journal editors to publishers and companies, and cover a multitude of disciplines.
Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary at Jisc, said: “It’s interesting to see that even though these stories represent a diverse range of initiatives, some recent, some historical, they all share a common thread. That thread is that they have all been collaborative exercises – with people looking to share the benefits of their work beyond their own institutions.”
One example is First Monday, a 15-year-old open access journal about the internet.. It was launched in May 1996 and is now one of the longest established, most respected peer reviewed journals of the internet. By August 2011 it had published 1,133 papers in 181 issues, written by 1,469 different authors representing institutions in over 30 different countries. It is read in 180 different countries.
Another story tells of how a repository can successfully build relationships with publishers. Pedocs is a German educational science archive that uses an innovative cooperation model with German publishing houses to make available freely and openly a wealth of high quality pedagogic literature. Set up in 2008, in the last three years it has developed cooperative relationships with more than 25 small and medium-sized German educational literature publishing houses.
The stories can be found on a dedicated, easy-to-use website and are open for comments and ready to share. They are not only free for all to read and refer to, but they are also licensed under a creative commons licence. To allow for easier re-use the stories will be available for download and use in other publications and websites.
The Knowledge Exchange consists of :
- Jisc in the UK
- Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF)
- German Research Foundation (DFG)
- SURFfoundation in the Netherlands
Read more about the Knowledge Exchange