Nilam Ashra-McGrath speaks about navigating the Open Access landscape for consortium of NGOs around the world at the Publishers for Development 2017 conference.

1. Navigating the open access landscape:
Reflections from a multi-country consortium of NGOs
Dr Nilam Ashra-McGrath
@NilamAMcGrath | @COMDISResearch | #PfD2017

3. Multi-country = multi-category
using the human development index
 Varying privileges for accessing research findings and
article processing charges in each country
 WHO + UN = Category A or B country
 Cat A get waivers = Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, Swaziland,
Ethiopia
 Cat B = Pakistan – does not reflect reality
 Not classed = China – does not reflect reality
 UK = access all areas pass

4. Availability of academic articles online for free is very
important for researchers, [programme staff ] and the
academic world. But sometime you cannot access the articles
due to payments or some issues like having to register
The major difficulty which I face is not
[being able to get] full articles. When I
Google the subject which I want I may get
[an] interesting abstract. When I try to
access the whole article, it may require
online registration or payment. So in
these cases, I [prefer not to] make any
payment, or [feel that] the registration
may be time consuming
When I was a
Masters student I
remember [being]
given a HINARI
password by our
school. But I didn’t
use it so much

5.  Money for OA taken from our project funds, but this
takes resources away from the activities we need to
scale up our work
 Ringfencing money for APCs is difficult
 Waivers not guaranteed
 No consistency in waivers & discounts
 Extra and hidden costs
APCs are tricky to allocate

7.  Need to share health research findings quickly, but
embargos limit the amount of impact we have. This is
detrimental to achieving the SDGs
 Policy makers need quick access and copyright and sharing
rights are restrictive - why should policymakers wait?
 Entitlement to share is not always consistent across
publishers
 Advocate standard practice of sharing findings in research
and policy briefs before publication in journals
Research findings are not always
easy to share

9. civil society
organisations
and charities
journalists consultants
and external
agencies
independent
researchers and
think tanks
government staff public
Important actors from the Global South do not have
adequate access to research findings

10.  OA has the capacity to blur the boundaries between academia
and the communities they wish to serve BUT...
 OA does not level the playing field for development actors. It's
still an exclusive club
 OA is necessary for democracy and to progress the
achievements against SDGs
 Ask that institutions that have the power to grant access to
other sections of society begin doing that
 Research is for the public benefit after all
What have we learned as
a consortium?

11. Let’s broaden the debate beyond business models, payment
plans, green and gold OA, and beyond academia in general,
particularly for developing countries
n.ashramcgrath@leeds.ac.uk
@NilamAMcGrath | @TalkingEvidence
Our door is open
Our research proposal: Is what we’ve experienced typical for
NGOs and other actors in developing countries?