Subproject: Open Access to Scholarly Publications

Happily, open access to scholarly publications has increased in recent years. However, this has been achieved through the use of hybrid agreements with major publishers – agreements that have become incredibly costly, while still failing to achieve the transformative shift to open access that was hoped for. The publishers simply continue to simultaneously publish research with restricted access. Another issue is that research is often published under licences that make it harder to reuse and elaborate on research, and that do not allow authors to retain their copyright.

The overall goal of the subproject is to ensure the university’s active contribution to the continued development towards an open and economically sustainable publishing landscape, where hybrid agreements are phased out in favour of entirely open publishing channels, and to increase knowledge among the university’s researchers about conditions for and pathways towards publishing in an open science system.

Based on this, we have set the following objectives:

1. Research is published with immediate open access.
2. Researchers retain their copyright. Unfortunately, this is often not the case today, something that we believe many researchers are not aware of.
3. Resources are used in a reflective and economically sustainable way. We think it is important to increase researchers’ understanding of what the costs actually are, and what they get for their money, so they can make well-informed choices, just as they do with other parts of the research budget.
4. Entirely open publishing channels are preferred over hybrid systems. This is a major challenge as few of the traditional publishers meet these requirements while predatory publishers seemingly do, but instead compromise on quality.
5. Non-commercial alternatives are considered. We see non-commercial alternatives as important future players. The profit motive of commercial actors has led to high publishing costs and the emergence of predatory publishers that compromise on quality for quick and easy money. Non-commercial alternatives, driven by and for researchers, have entirely different motives, which are often more aligned with researchers’ needs.
6. Monographs and chapters in anthologies are also published with open access. There is still much to be done here. While research articles with open access have increased in number, it is still uncommon for monographs and chapters to be published openly.
7. Other types of scholarly documents are also published with open access (e.g., preprints, protocols, preregistrations, and conference presentations). To the extent that these types of products are published, many of them are published openly, but it is not always the case that researchers are aware of, or have adopted, open research practices through which these alternative – yet important – types of research publications can be created.
8. New forms of publishing channels are considered. Why is it that in 2024 we are still publishing static articles in PDF format? To the extent that researchers find new ways forward (for instance in the form of interactive websites), universities must support and encourage them.
9. The unique conditions of the specific research are considered in the choice of publishing channels. Last but not least, it is important to recognise that traditions arise for a reason, and that closed publishing has advantages that researchers do not want to, cannot, and should not give up. As a concrete example, some fields have small, niche journals with a clear readership, such as professional journals. By publishing there, researchers easily reach the right audience. To publish openly instead, in a place where the intended audience do not find the research, is not a good alternative. Researchers need support in transitioning to open publishing without it having negative consequences for their research.

In order to achieve our objectives, we will primarily work on developing the support researchers receive when choosing publication channels. We will create a guide on Staff that will help researchers navigate the often quite tricky publishing landscape. We will develop our materials in collaboration with researchers and consolidate the knowledge through presentations, seminars, and conferences. An important aspect is to ensure that researchers do not have to worry about their track record being negatively affected by their publishing with open access; for this reason, we will collaborate with the subproject on recognition of qualifications.

In addition to the above, we are also exploring how we can develop Lnu Press to become an even stronger agent in promoting alternative non-commercial publishing of research with open access, and looking into how the costs of publishing with open access should be accounted for.

Get involved!

You are welcome to get involved in the work on open science. If you have questions about the subproject or would like to learn more about how you can get involved, please contact the subproject manager Rickard Carlsson or the assistant project manager Helena Wickenberg Juhlin.