To disseminate or not: new answers to an old question

1. To disseminate or not: new answers to an old question Alma Swan Key Perspectives Ltd Truro, UK Rethinking the University after Bologna: New Concepts and Practices beyond Tradition and the Market UCSIA Interdisciplinary Conference 12th– 13th of December 2008 University of Antwerp

2. What are universities for? Key Perspectives Ltd

3. Daniel Coit Gilman First President, Johns Hopkins University Key Perspectives Ltd

4. Old values • Enabling and encouraging intellectual endeavour • Scholarship for its own worth • Collaborative spirit in the furtherance of society • Collegiate view of the academic community worldwide Key Perspectives Ltd

5. The last few decades • Bayh-Dole • Governments requiring universities to exploit IP • Encouraged an attitude of risk-taking (which is not a core value of the academy) • Fostered a spirit of competition between academic institutions (a serious one) • Funding “linked to strategic priorities and specific outcomes rather than philanthropy” (Wellings) • Loss of the public service model • “Lofty ideal became lowly ambition” (Macdonald) • Secrecy transcended sharing • Compromise of the commons Key Perspectives Ltd

6. The knowledge commons • Knowledge created in the academy was disseminated as effectively as possible by scholarly societies and university presses • Base values: • Collaboration and cooperation • Sharing • Societal benefit Key Perspectives Ltd

7. ‘The tragedy of the anti-commons’* • Relinquished to commercial publishers (N.B. are they entrepreneurial and risk-taking?) • Even academy publishers are now largely ‘commercial’ • Values: Commons became ownership • Ownership is outside the academy • Permissions, rights, restrictions…. • Compromising research efficacy • Diminishing the public good *Armbruster Key Perspectives Ltd

8. University of EdinburghStrategic Plan 2008-12 “The mission of our University is the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge.” Key Perspectives Ltd

9. Open Access Key Perspectives Ltd

10. Open Access • Immediate • Free (to use) • Free (of restrictions) • Access to the peer-reviewed literature (and data): circa 25,000 journals • Not vanity publishing • Not a ‘stick anything up on the Web’ approach • Moving scholarly communication into the Web Age Key Perspectives Ltd

11. Open Access: Who benefits? • Benefits to researchers themselves • Benefits to institutions • Benefits to national economies • Benefits to science and society • N.B. It was the funders who saw this first Key Perspectives Ltd

12. What are universities for? Key Perspectives Ltd

13. University of EdinburghStrategic Plan 2008-12 “The mission of our University is the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge.” Key Perspectives Ltd

14. Open Access policies Key Perspectives Ltd

15. EurOpenScholar • Group of universities that wish to further Open Access and improve scholarly communication • Share those core values of dissemination and maximising the public good • Chair: Professor Bernard Rentier, rector of the University of Liège • Open to all institutions who subscribe to its values and aims • No longer just Europe (we need a new name!) • Membership is at senior management level • Contact: Alma Swan Key Perspectives Ltd

16. Thank you for listening aswan@keyperspectives.co.uk www.keyperspectives.co.uk www.keyperspectives.com Key Perspectives Ltd