[eIFLoa] Fwd: PRESS RELEASE Knowledge Exchange: Benefits of Open Access clearly outweigh costs in three European Countries

Tue Jun 30 18:18:39 EEST 2009

----- Forwarded message from keo at bs.dk -----
   Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:42:01 +0200
   From: Knowledge Exchange Office <keo at bs.dk>
Reply-To: Knowledge Exchange Office <keo at bs.dk>
 Subject: PRESS RELEASE Knowledge Exchange: Benefits of Open Access clearly
outweigh costs in three European Countries

Dear Madam, Sir

PRESS RELEASE
22 June 2009

Benefits of Open Access clearly outweigh costs in three European
Countries

For Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands free access to
scholarly materials could offer significant benefits not only to
research and higher education but also to society as a whole. This has
been calculated by Australian economist Professor John Houghton in
studies which have taken place in these three countries on the costs and
benefits of scholarly communication. He has now summarised these
findings in a report commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, which is a
partnership of the IT bodies from Denmark (DEFF), the United Kingdom
(JISC), the Netherlands (SURFfoundation) and Germany (DFG).

At present universities pay millions of Euros every year for access to
scientific and scholarly publications. Businesses, smaller educational
institutes, and other organisations often cannot afford the expensive
licences needed for access. If the "Open Access" model were to be
applied globally, this would allow for increased access to research
results for both researchers and the public at large.

In the three national studies the costs and benefits of scholarly
communication were compared based on three different publication models.
The modelling revealed that the greatest advantage would be offered by
the Open Access model, which means that the research institution or the
party financing the research pays for publication and the article is
then freely accessible. Adopting this model could lead to annual savings
of around EUR 70 million in Denmark, EUR 133 million in The Netherlands
and EUR 480 in the UK. The report concludes that the advantages would
not just be in the long term; in the transitional phase too, more open
access to research results would have positive effects. In this case the
benefits would also outweigh the costs.

The findings from this modelling suggest that open access alternatives
are likely to be more cost-effective mechanisms for scholarly publishing
in a wide range of countries (both large and small).

Given the potential benefits, it does seem worth while to ensure that
there is a level playing field between alternative publishing models.
This will reduce the barriers to innovation in scholarly publishing.

The full text of the study can be downloaded from the address:

http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=316

Title: Open Access - What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the
United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark.
Author: John Houghton, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria
University, Melbourne, Australia

Notes for editors

About Knowledge Exchange

Knowledge Exchange is a co-operative effort that supports the use and
development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
infrastructure for higher education and research. The European partners
of Knowledge Exchange, DFG (Germany), JISC (UK), DEFF (Denmark) and
SURFfoundation (The Netherlands), share a common vision based on their
four national strategies. That vision is: To make a layer of scholarly
and scientific content openly available on the Internet. In order to
realise this goal, the partners work on supporting existing and new
programmes on national and international levels, co-ordinating efforts
on building an integrated repository infrastructure, exploring new
developments in the future of publishing, facilitating integrated
management services within education and research institutions and
supporting libraries in the digital age.

For further information: www.knowledge-exchange.info

Please contact: Keith Russell (Knowledge Exchange Office) on +31 30
2346600
or kru at knowledge-exchange.info

*         DFG - The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research
Foundation) is the central, self-governing research funding organisation
that promotes research at universities and other publicly financed
research institutions in Germany. The DFG serves all branches of science
and the humanities by funding research projects and facilitating
cooperation among researchers.
www.dfg.de <http://www.dfg.de/>

*         JISC - the Joint Information Systems Committee - is a joint
committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies and is
responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and
communication technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and
research. It is best known for providing the JANET network, a range of
support, content and advisory services, and a portfolio of high-quality
resources.
www.jisc.ac.uk <outbind://169/Windows/www.jisc.ac.uk>

*         DEFF - Denmark's Electronic Research Library is an
organisational and technological partnership between research libraries
co-financed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the
Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. DEFF's purpose is to
advance the development of a network of electronic research libraries
that make available their electronic and other information resources to
the patrons in a coherent and simple way. This is obtained partly
through government funding and partly by joint purchase of licenses. The
Danish Agency for Libraries and Media runs the secretariat of the
partnership.
www.deff.dk <http://www.deff.dk/>

*         SURF is the collaborative organisation for higher education
institutions and research institutes aimed at breakthrough innovations
in ICT. SURF provides the foundation for the excellence of higher
education and research in the Netherlands. SURF comprises three
partners: SURFfoundation, SURFnet and SURFdiensten (SURFservices).
www.surf.nl <http://www.surf.nl/>

On behalf of the Knowledge Exchange partners,

Anne Maja Wad

_____________________________________________________________

Anne Maja Wad, Secretary
Knowledge Exchange
Danish Agency for Libraries and Media,  H.C. Andersens Blvd. 2,  DK-1553
Copenhagen V,  Denmark
Direct telephone: (+45) 33 73 33 15
Email: <mailto:cto at knowledge-exchange.info> amw at knowledge-exchange.info
<mailto:amw at knowledge-exchange.info>    Web: www.knowledge-exchange.info
<http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/>