RSC Publishing & Open Access

1. RSC Publishing & Open Access Richard Blount - Journals Sales Executive (UK & Northern Europe) DEFF Online 2012 – Copenhagen, 25th September

2. Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) • Founded 1841 • One of the largest organisations for advancing the chemical sciences • Professional body with a worldwide network of 47,500 members • Internationally acclaimed publishing business

3. What does the RSC do? ‘Advancing the chemical sciences’

4. London & Cambridge Tokyo Beijing & Shanghai Bangalore International Reach Philadelphia & Raleigh São Paulo

5. RSC Roadmap for the Chemical Sciences Priority Areas Energy Food Future cities Human health Lifestyle & recreation Raw materials & feedstocks Water & air

6. Partnership Projects • Enhancing education • Building science capacity • Global Challenges • Investing in teachers • Creating a Chemistry Centre

7. PanAfricaChemistryNetwork

8. RSC Publishing The object for which the Society is constituted is the general advancement of chemical science and its application and for that purpose:  to foster and encourage the growth and application of such science by the dissemination of chemical knowledge

9. What is RSC Publishing?

10. Global Chemistry Landscape

11. Continued growth in number of published articles Estimated numbers (ISI Feb 2012)

12. International Trends

13. International Trends

14. Increase quality and impact

15. Business models • All of our new journal launches are free to access for the first 2 volumes of publication • Offer an author pay route “Open Science” • Currently very little uptake (0.2%) • Comply with all major funding bodies public access requirements • Currently no significant grass roots movement in Chemistry for OA

16. Why do researchers publish? Certification(who did it) Registration(assessment of quality) Dissemination(available to community) Archiving(maintaining the scientific record) Discoverability(ensuring work can be found)

17. Access to research: Models • Subscription model (reader pays for publisher-maintained article) • ‘Gold’ open access (publisher-maintained article is available to all upon publication) • ‘Green’ open access (deposition in repository, article is available after an embargo period, version varies) Open access (OA) is the availability of electronic content to readers without any access payment

18. Access to research: RSC policy The RSC seeks to maximise the dissemination of the content it publishes We support any and all sustainable models of access In terms of Open Access, we support ‘Gold’ Open Access We do not wish authors to be discriminated against, if they are unable to pay author-side fees Should the number of ‘reader-side payment’ articles reduce, as a result of Open Access uptake, journal subscription rates will be adjusted downwards We seek to work closely with other parties, including funders and government agencies, to achieve these goals

19. Current landscape 7307 OA Journals (Nov. 2011) 7.7% of STM articles are published via an OA route

20. Current landscape: OA Articles by field

21. Current landscape Gold OA fees (article processing charges) Both RSC and ACS offer discounts for certain groups e.g. Society members

22. Current landscape 46% in Europe 23% in N. America 17% in Asia

23. What are the challenges/risks? • Corporate R&D • Self-funded researchers • Low funded fields / nations • Micro payments • I won’t pay • Multiple authors / mandates / funders • Ethical risks: Bentham scandal (2009) • High impact journals

24. And what are the benefits? Indication is that OA articles attract a higher number of downloads • Journal of Experimental Botany (OUP) • 40% increase • Nucleic Acid Research (OUP) • 8% increase • American Physiological Society • 89% increase But no evidence that citations increase due to OA publication6

25. Who are the OA advocates? • Government • Funding organisations • Libraries • Universities • Research communities • Patient advocacy groups • The Public (tax payers)

26. Who are the OA advocates? Government intervention Committees and enquiries aplenty Input from all parties and important for publishers to articulate their views

27. The Finch report (June 2012) Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications Recommendations: • All publicly-funded research should be made available via OA, supported by APCs • Research councils and public sector bodies should develop effective ways of meeting OA publishing costs • Approx.£50 m needed for this transition • For Green OA 12 month embargo period

28. Summary: current situation • Rapid growth of institutional repositories • Increased government involvement • Individual funding agency mandates • Publisher experimentation continues • Still lack of agreement on evidence to date • Varying policies are confusing for authors and readers • Still some lack of understanding and trust between publishers and research community

29. Summary: RSC Open Science available since 1 October 2006 • £1,000 (communication / tech note) • £1,600 (full paper) • £2,500 (review) 15% discount for key customers (Gold, A, B, and members) Approx 0.2% uptake (2011) For success we need chemistry community to support OA, as we will support chemistry community

30. Summary: RSC Gold for Gold The value of the institutes subscription as ‘credit’ towards Open Science The ‘value’ of the Open Science credits distributed to exceed £1m

31. RSC Gold • All RSC journals, databases and magazine content – 1841-2012 • 40 titles in 2012 (44 by 2015) • Includes all new journals launched since 2008 • E-only package

32. New RSC Journals 2009 2010 2011 2012 Increase in published articles: 2010 – 13,500 2011 – 20,500 2012 – 25,000 (target)

33. Current Free Journals

34. The Future: RSC • Gold for Gold UK feedback • International plans • Available to all Gold subscribers?

35. Thank you! Questions? blountr@rsc.org