THE LERU ROADMAP TOWARDS OPEN ACCESS LERU OPEN ACCESS WORKING GROUP Universiteit van Amsterdam - Universitat de Barcelona - University of Cambridge - University of Edinburgh - Albert- Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg - Université de Genève - Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg - Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki) - Universiteit Leiden - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Imperial College London - University College London - Lunds universitet - Università degli Studi di Milano - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München - University of Oxford - Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris - Université Paris-Sud 11 - Université de Strasbourg - Universiteit Utrecht - Universität Zürich ADVICE PAPER No.8 - JUNE 2011 LEAGUE OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

Authors The paper has been written by the LERU working group on open access. Contributing authors to the paper are: Paul Ayris, Director of UCL Library Services and UCL Copyright Officer, President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) and Co-chair of the LERU working group on open access Lars Björnshauge, Director of Libraries, Lunds universitet, and Co-chair of the LERU working group on open access Mel Collier, Head Librarian, K.U.Leuven Eelco Ferwerda, Amsterdam University Press, Digital projects, & Coordinator of OAPEN Neil Jacobs, Programme Director, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Kaisa Sinikara, University Librarian, University of Helsinki Alma Swan, Convenor, Enabling Open Scholarship Saskia de Vries, Director, Amsterdam University Press Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Director, SPARC-Europe LERU thanks the wider community of librarians in its member universities and other experts who provided valuable input for the paper and comments during the drafting process. The LERU Research Policy Committee and Rectors generously contributed their advice.

3 Executive Summary • The LERU Roadmap towards Open Access represents a con- scious decision by the League of European Research Universities to investigate new models for scholarly commu- nication and the dissemination of research outputs emanat- ing from LERU universities. • The European Commission has singled out "the dissemina- tion, transfer and use of research results, including through open access to publications and data from publicly funded research", as one of the action points to be pursued in order to achieve a well-functioning European Research Area (ERA).1 Access to research information must be optimised if the European research community is to operate effectively, pro- ducing high-quality research that has a wider social and eco- nomic impact.2 • We are seeing a growing interest across the world in the moves made in recent years to stimulate an ‘Open Access’ environment, where scholarly literature is made freely avail- able on the internet, so that it can be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed, searched, text mined, or used for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal or techni- cal barriers, subject to proper attribution of authorship.3 • The idea of Open Access is not new the first major interna- tional statement on Open Access was set out in the Declaration of the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2002.4 However, ‘the pathway’ to Open Access is not a smooth one. Many parties are involved and there are many competing interests. There are costs and there are advocates, agnostics and critics. There are gains and impacts which need to be carefully assessed. • This Roadmap traverses some of this landscape and aims to assist LERU members who wish to put in place structures, policies and practices to facilitate Open Access. Whilst the Roadmap is primarily intended for LERU members, other European universities may find it useful. • The two basic mechanisms through which researchers can make their work freely available are often termed as the ‘gold route’ and the ‘green route.’ The adoption of either or both routes could lead to a transformation in the means of dis- seminating research outputs by LERU and other universities across the globe. • LERU and/or other universities can consider having Open Access repositories into which, copyright permissions allow- ing, copies of their members’ research outputs could be deposit- ed. Those who already have such repositories are continuing to develop them. Many universities have found the Green route a helpful one to follow as a means of improving the dissemina- tion of research outputs. In Webometrics listings of the impact of institutional repositories, LERU universities are significant contributors. The July 2010 listing shows that five of the top ten European universities listed are members of LERU.5 Further guidance, including some costing information, on implementing the Green route is given in section III. • Several universities have supported the Gold route for Open Access, whereby authors in these institutions either publish in Open Access journals or pay publication charges ( funded by the research funder or from an institutional Open Access fund) to make their article available in Open Access on pub- lication. Some research funders, such as the Wellcome Trust in the UK, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), will fund such publication payments. The Gold route is a bold route, which may also change the pattern of publica- tion. Further information, including some financial infor- mation, is given in section IV. • All of the changes described in this Roadmap require leader- ship. Universities could usefully nominate a senior person who can lead on Open Access issues for the whole university. These people could, in turn, work together collaboratively to take forward the Open Access agenda in Europe, making links as appropriate to other bodies in Europe who support Open Access developments. At an institutional level, the sen- ior Open Access champion could usefully draw together a pan-university committee, with representatives from disci- plines/support services to take the agenda forward. THE LERU ROADMAP TOWARDS OPEN ACCESS 1 See Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union. European Commission. COM (2010) 546, 6 October 2010. 2 See Overcoming barriers: Access to research information content. Research Information Network, London, 2009. Available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Sarah/Overcoming-barriers-report-Dec09_0.pdf and Friend, F.J. (2007) UK Access to UK Research, in Serials, vol. 20 (3), pp. 231-34. Available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/4842/. 3 See Getting your feet wet: An introduction to Open Access, http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/introduction-open-access. 4 See http://www.soros.org/openaccess/view.cfm. 5 See http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=europe.