The document discusses the state of open access (OA) publishing in chemistry, highlighting its slow adoption compared to other scientific fields due to various barriers, including lack of funding and concerns about journal quality. It reviews the history and evolution of OA initiatives from 1991 to 2011 and presents findings from a large-scale study on chemists' attitudes toward OA journals, indicating a growing support for open access despite existing cultural and economic obstacles. The authors predict that OA in chemistry will continue to grow over the next five years, driven by initiatives from outlying subject areas and increased funding opportunities.

1. Open access in chemistry:information wants to be free?Jan Kuras, Deborah Kahn, Bryan VickeryChemistry CentralLondon, UKAmerican Chemical Society National Meeting, March 27-31, 2011Technical session: Internet and Chemistry

2. Information wants to be free? Free of access restrictions? Free of charge? Free of standards and organization?

3. Objective:“An honest and philosophical assessment of open access in chemistry”A good time to review...20 years of more widespread interest in OA...Over 10 years since BioMed Central, PubMed Central, PLoS started...(10 years since Internet Journal of Chemistry launched...)About 5 years since PubChem, Chemistry Central, ChemSpider, eMolecules started...A major Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) undertaken in 2010 No scientific concepts were harmed in the making of this presentation

4. What Open Access isFree & permanent unrestricted online accessAuthors retain copyrightData can be redistributed and reused freelyWhat Open Access isn’tSelf publishing

5. A means to bypass peer reviewWhat motivated open access?Serials crisis: rising subscription prices, decreasing library budgetsOnline publishing opportunities & technologies, and subsequent data linking, integration, reuse and miningThe “Open” movement: open data, open source, open standards, open accessUnrestricted access to publicly funded research to maximize impact

6. Significant timelines in the open access movement 1991-2011PubChemOASPASPARCeMoleculesChemistryinitiativesBethesdaStatementChemSpiderOpenArchives InitiativeBudapestInitiativeChemistryCentralChEMBLarXiv20102004200219982000200820061991NCBI/GenBankBerlin DeclarationBioMedCentralPLoSPubMedNIH OA mandateWellcome OA mandateICSAUS Federal ResearchPublic Access ActPubMedCentralBiomedicineinitiatives

7. Chemistry publishing: current positionNumber of chemistry journals? Well, CAS indexes over 1,500 core journalsNo chemistry-specific server for peer-reviewed papers cf. PubMed CentralNo pre-print culture cf. arXiv for physicsNo funder mandates such as Wellcome Trust, NIHUniversity/Research institute mandates frequently not implemented by chemists

8. Open access in chemistry: current positionDirectory of Open Access Journals: approx. 130 chemistry journals (amongst approx. 6,000 total OA journals)Publishers include: Chemistry Central; Beilstein; Hindawi; Bentham; MDPILots of Society, University and Independent journalsIUCr Acta Crystallographica Section E: Structure Reports OnlineBusiness model: article-processing charge (APC)Either passed on to author or covered by publisherMajor publishers allow authors to make papers OA through additional paymentACS; RSC; Wiley-Blackwell; Springer ; Elsevier Some publishers allow self-archivingRSC; Elsevier; Springer; Nature

9. Journals listed inChemistryjournals~130 OA chemistry journals

10. Recent studies & reports on OAThe value of new scientific communication models for chemistry (Velden, Lagoze: 2009)Open access to the scientific journal literature: situation 2009 (Björk et al: 2010)Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP 2010)

11. Open Access to the Scientific Journal Literature: Situation 2009OA prevalence on an article basis accessible through Google searchRandom sample of 1,837 science journalsSources: Web of Science; Scopus; DOAJ, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory9.7% Chemistry journalsStudy year was 2008; time of study was Sept-Oct 2009 to ensure capture of “embargoed” and delayed OA articlesOverall, 20.4% papers were freely available 8.5% in OA journals (“Gold”); 11.9% in repositories (“Green”)At 13%, chemistry has the lowest share of OA papers5.5% in OA journals (“Gold”); 7.4% in repositories (“Green”)Earth sciences (33%); Physics (23.5%); Medicine (22%); Biological sciences (19%)

12. Value of new scientific communication models for chemistryFailure of new communication models in chemistryCompare GenBank, PubMed Central, arXivBarriers not technical: chemists embracing open initiatives & technologiesCML, InChI, open source tools, open notebook science, OA journals and repositoriesIssue of latency: delayed in comparison with other disciplines?Complex socio-technical issues: IP and secrecy about research details?Influence of societies and society publishing with commercial interests and proven journal business modelsInfluence of journal prestige, impact factors, citation advantage, etc.The “reward system” is coupled to the communication system by relying on IFs and citations, which makes chemists risk-averse in trying new models

13. Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP)Multidisciplinary study including physical, life and social sciences, financed by the European CommissionCoordinated by CERN with Springer, SAGE & BioMed Central; Max Planck Digital Library; and UK Science & Technology Facilities CouncilTo “describe and compare the offering and demand for open access publishing in peer-reviewed journals”Assessment by large scale multidiscipline international surveyReached over 1.5 million recipients with over 54,000 respondents42,000 Responses analyzed, including over 2,300 chemistsCaveat: “self-selection” bias in favour of scientists with an interest in OA

14. Demographics: chemists’ experience and affiliationn=2338

15. Number of OA articles published by respondents in last 5 yearsBy subject areas

16. Would OA journals be beneficial in chemistry?Smallest “Yes”in surveyn=2308

17. Percentage of researchers who say OA journals would be beneficialBy subject area

18. Percentage of chemists who say that OA journals would be beneficialBy research experience“Emerging” chemists?

19. LessSocietyinfluence?

20. Why are OA journals beneficial in chemistry?n=967

21. Why aren’t OA journals beneficial in chemistry?n=192

22. What are the reasons not to publish in OA journals?Same across all sciencesn=503

23. Publication fee charged for last OA article?n=1058

24. How was the publication fee covered?n=381

25. How easy was it to obtain funds for publication?n=330

26. The prevalence of Impact Factors in OA journalsCompared to

27. Finally, responses from chemists on positive, neutral and negative statements about open access

28. n=2139n=2131n=2140

29. n=2137n=2124n=2144

30. n=2133n=2123n=2140

31. Analysis and ConclusionsChemistry has the lowest share of OA journals and papers amongst the physical and life sciencesChemists have similar concerns around quality and funding as exist(ed) in other sciencesPlus there are further habitual and cultural issues in chemistry, e.g. society influence, the reward systemThere are positive indications of support for open access in chemistryIs OA in chemistry approx. 5 years behind life sciences?

32. Positive signs from SOAPAlmost 80% of chemists agree that OA journals are beneficial Equally spread across experience levels and types of research instituteCompares favourably with biology and medicine at 90%Major reasons why OA is considered beneficialBenefit to the scientific community, author and publicFinancial considerationsOver 50% of chemists have published 1 or more papers in OA journalsContributions from biochemists, medicinal chemists, cheminformaticians, crystallographersCompares unfavourably with over 80% of biologists

33. The obstaclesMajor reasons for not publishing in OA journals for chemists:Lack of funding , presence of publication fees (44%)Perception of journal quality (38%)Publication fee charged:Almost 60% were not chargedFor remainder: fee included in research funds (30%) or unassigned research funds used (30%)Over 50% of chemists state it is difficult to obtain fundsFewer than 50% of chemists in universities and research institutes are likely to publish in OA journals

34. Changes for OA to grow in chemistryChange in habits, culture and the conservatism amongst chemistsSatisfaction with current model – no appetite for changeSupport for university/research institute OA mandatesAttitudes of societies, influence of society publishing with commercial interests and proven journal business modelsPerceptions of journal prestige, and influence of impact factors, citation advantage, etc.The “reward system” is coupled to the communication system by relying on IFs and citations, making chemists risk-averse in trying new modelsAvailability and provision of publication fundsFrom funding bodies and universities/research institutes OA Mandates from funding agencies and universities/research institutes

35. Factors to accelerate progressAdvocacy amongst key opinion leaders in chemistryOA chemistry journals obtaining Impact FactorsTransfer of high quality journals to OA modelMore chemists supporting open initiatives and technologiesIn outliers e.g. cheminformatics, crystallographyEmbracing mainstream chemistryThe growth of the “Open” movement: Open data, open source, open access, open notebooks

36. Our prediction.....“Over the next 5 years, open access in chemistry will continue to grow steadily in support and in publication volumes. This will be primarily driven by chemists in outlying subject areas wanting to enhance the visibility, verifiability and reproducibility of their data, and to a lesser extent by mainstream researchers. Important ‘tipping points’ will be increased availability of funds, OA mandates from funders and universities/research institutes, and journals obtaining and improving their impact factors.”

37. Thank you for your attentionJan Kurasjan.kuras@chemistrycentral.comwww.chemistrycentral.comwww.chemistrycentral.com/blogtwitter @Chem_Central...come talk to me...