Presentation during the SA Open Access Week

1. Right to Research
Subscription-based vs Open Access Journals
Pavlinka Kovatcheva, Sciences Librarian
University of Johannesburg
E-mail: pkovatcheva@uj.ac.za
Open Access Week @ WITs, 21 Oct 2010

2. Presentation Outline
• Impact of Open Access on Research
• Subscription-based Databases
• SA Open Access Journal Collections
& Institutional Repositories
• International Institutional Repositories
• Top Open Access Journals
• Subscriptions meet Open Access
• Way forward for Universities
Book review

3. Impact of Open Access on Research

4. Why do we promote Open Access (OA)?
Open Access provide free, immediate, online access to the
published results of scholarly research
• About 25,000 peer-reviewed journals are published worldwide
• Universities and research institutions afford to subscribe to a
fraction of those journals ...... that means that research is
having only a fraction of its potential usage and impact
• If 100% of research articles were freely accessible through
OA, then the usage, impact, productivity and progress of
research would be maximised.
“Scientific Dissemination using Open Access”

5. Open Access for Researchers
• Open Access
- maximises the access to research findings,
- increases research impact to a wider readership,
- expands shared knowledge across scientific field,
- make their research output more visible to
researchers elsewhere, and make research from
elsewhere more accessible to them,
- increases the citation impact of the author,
- over time increases the journal impact factor (?)

6. What else do Researchers need to know about OA?
• What OA journals exist in your research field?
- Open Science Directory, PubMed Central, PloS, DOAJ...
• What Institutional Repository your institution use and how a
researchers can benefit from it?
- WIReDSpace, UJDigispace, IRSpace, OpenDOAR, ROAR
• Publishing in subscription-based journals, can limit your readership
• Publishing your pre-print article in OA repositories can enlarge your
readership and citation impact: Arxiv.org; WIReDSpace.
• Deposit your post-prints in a OA repository: WIReDSpace
• As a Researcher you have an option to publish in Accredited Open
Access Journals (AOAJSA, cont.)

7. Accredited Open Access Journals – South Africa (AOAJSA)
http://www.ais.up.ac.za/aoajsa.htm

8. WITS Institutional Repository
http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za

9. Eprints: http://www.eprints.org/

10. Funding for publishing in OA Journals
• Funding options for OA journals and researchers:
- OA journals do not generate revenue
- OA Publishers receive funding in exchange for advertising on
their web
- Some OA journals require payments from the Authors for
article submission
- Government can subsidise OA publishers/institutions for
producing freely available information
- International funding agencies (Collaboration)
- Institutional/University Membership paid on behalf of the
Authors

11. Open Access Journal Collections & Web Resources

12. Subscription-based Journals & Databases

13. eIFL.net
How do University Libraries Support Research?
Access to knowledge is fundamental to education and
research, the improvement of lives, and the creation
of human capital upon which the development of
societies depends.
Libraries play a key role through the provision of high
quality information resources and services.
However, factors such as the high cost of commercial
e-resources, legal barriers and poor technology
infrastructure risk leaving many people around the
world behind.
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/about

14. UJ Subscription-based Databases
Over 150 Databases in 2011; Over R 7.5 millions

15. WITS Subscription-based Databases
Over 130 Databases

16. http://www.univen.ac.za/library_databases.html
Only 12 Databases +
2 Open Access Journals
collections
The lack of Databases
subscriptions, will restrict
students access to
information and
consequently will lead to
low research output.

17. Access to Databases: Comparison
Top Multidisciplinary Databases
WITS University
• No subscription
• Proquest
• Sage Journals Online (400
journals, 1999+)
• Science Direct (1995+)
• Springer Link (2400 journals)
• Taylor & Francis (1000 journals)
• Wiley Library Online (400 journals,
1997+)
• IEEE Xplore (1998+)
• EbscoHost
• Scopus
Top Multidisciplinary Databases
University of Johannesburg
• Cambridge Journals Online
• Cancelled for 2009
• No subscription (under
consideration for 2011)
• Science Direct (1995+)
• Springer Link (S & T collection)
• No subscription
• Wiley Library Online (400
journals, 1997+)
• IEEE Xplore (full Collection)
• EbscoHost
• No subscription

18. Money! Money! Money!
Budget restrictions:
• CrossFire upgrade to Reaxys
- Increase substantially in cost (Over R 100,000)
- Impact for Chemistry researchers, if cancelled
- Way forward for 2011 subscription
• ISI Web of Science vs Scopus
- Both serve the same purpose to find citation and
abstracts (ISI Accredited Journals; Impact factor)
- Complement each other (for how long?)
• Proquest vs Ebsco vs Infotrac databases
- Duplication of titles vs Unique titles/ Cancelation
• Books 24x7 – cancelled for 2011

19. Some thoughts on...... Shrinking budgets
• Maintaining journal subscription renewals is a challenge
• The rising % of subscription fees is unpredictable
• Cancellation of print journals for online access could be
beneficial (sometime it saves up to 10%) or not.
• Book Budget cuts, less and less funds for books.
• Budget vs exchange rate. The economy rule!
• Databases usage vs Cost per search.
• Evaluation of existing resources
• All of the above can lead to > Cancellation of useful
resources for researchers.

20. SA Open Access Journals Collections &
Institutional Repositories

21. African Journals Archive
http://www.ajarchive.org

22. http://www.sabinet.co.za/?page=open-access-journals

23. http://www.scielo.org.za
The Scientific Electronic Library Online
Academy of Science of South Africa - ASSAf

24. http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=013518019117943970829%3Atlw8-sayn_q

25. International Institutional Repositories

26. Open DOAR
http://www.opendoar.org/search.php

27. Registry of Open Access Repository (ROAR)
http://roar.eprints.org/

28. Driver for European Research
http://search.driver.research-infrastructures.eu/

29. Top Open Access Journals & Collections

30. http://www.opensciencedirectory.net/

31. http://www.doaj.org

32. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc

33. http://www.plos.org/journals

34. http://www.openaccesscentral.com/

35. Golonka Resources
e-Math for Africa; e-Physics for Africa; e-Chemistry for Africa
e-Physics for Africa: http://physics.golonka.se/
e-Math for Africa: http://math.golonka.se/
e-Chemistry for Africa: http://chemistry.golonka.se/
The main purpose is to promote the
use of Open Access journals and other
scientific resources, as well as being a
platform for consortia building.

36. http://arxiv.org

37. http://arxiv.org/corr/home

38. http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596

39. Subscriptions meet Open Access
Commercial Publishers on the move???

40. Open Access Publishers: some statistics
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1010/1010.0506.pdf

41. http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1010/1010.0506.pdf
Commercial Publishers with hybrid option

42. Google & Google Scholar (Academic articles)
Bridging Subscriptions + Free + Open Access
http://scholar.google.com

43. Open Access & Institutional Repository:
Way forward for Universities
• Establish Open Access Mandates
• Institutional Repositories and deposition of research output
• Building OA Community within the University & nationally
• Join the world OA movement
• Discuss Institutional Memberships to Open Access Publishers
• Collaborate in creation of new SA Open Access Journals
• Open Educational Webcasting (lectures; training)
• Raising awareness of OA & IR among our peers
• Nationwide initiative for subscription based journals – equal
access to information and knowledge
• Use Social Media for Open Communication

44. Open Access eBook
http://sdu.ictp.it/openaccess/book.html

45. http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2582125/UJ_Open_Access_Week_2010
Open Access! Open Source! Open everything!

46. Pavlinka Kovatcheva
E-mail: pkovatcheva@uj.ac.za
UJ Sciences Librarian Portal: http://ujsciencelibrarian.pbworks.com/FrontPage
Slideshare presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/pavlinka163/presentations
Thank you