In the context of a global pandemic, it may seem like focusing on licensing is an inappropriate and administrative fixation, far removed from the priority list of researchers and academics attempting to conduct their business under difficult conditions. Following on from our introduction to the emerging Gold open access publishing opportunities that the University is now supporting, in this post, we will demonstrate that this is the right time to think about the licensing of academic outputs in more detail.
Diversity of forms in academic publishing
Far from being limited to journal articles and scholarly monographs, there are diverse range of publishing cultures in the academy, with many simultaneously coexisting across disciplinary boundaries. For example, creative practice often produces works in forms such as performances, exhibitions, videos, sound and many others. Some of these work, such as audio production, for example, may been produced digitally with custom built software. Here we can begin to see where multiple outputs may actually be being produced and published.
Software development and audio production differ not only in content, but also in publishing culture and dissemination practices. For example, artefacts such as music recordings are most commonly issued under standard copyright. However, software development has common practices of openly sharing underlying code. Free or open-source software makes use of open licenses such as GPL which allows code to be reused by others in ways as stipulated in the licence. These different cultural publishing practices serve various functions for various stakeholders, but their divergence is quite dramatic.
Legacy workflows
The majority of the University’s scholarly and research outputs are textual outputs such as journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and monographs. The publishing culture in these formats is traditionally much more akin to audio publishing than software or code. The legacy workflow commonly involved transferring copyright from the author to the publisher. The publisher would then make agreements with the University to provide bundles of journals, including the outputs of our researchers, to our registered users.
This workflow has proven economically unviable as prices have increased despite demand increasing during a period of economic growth and austerity. However, many research funders have been frustrated that the outputs they have helped to fund are paywalled, minimising their potential impact as only those with access to the walled garden can engage with them. However, it can be reductive to reduce the complexity of scholarly publishing and scholarly communication to rudimentary economics.
Impact and context
If scholarly publishing was more closely aligned with the models of publishing across free and open-source software publishing, this could allow for more effective dissemination, and to help maximise the opportunities for research impact across society for multiple interested communities beyond the academy.
The idea of open access scholarly publishing (or Gold open access publishing) has its own diverse histories but since the UK’s Research Councils and other funders (such as the Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, etc.) have mandates with strong preferences for Gold open access with Creative Commons licenses, open access has dramatically grown.
Compliance with such policies is mandatory and as such monitored. This has yielded significant growth, whereby a greater proportion of the total scholarly output is accessible to wider publics. In the context of a global pandemic, open access to research it vital for global communities of researchers to have universal access to studies and data. But this does not just apply to STEM!
By continuing to paywall humanities and social science research, the academy can be interpreted as supporting the status quo by allowing only the privileged to access vital research and scholarship. With many scholars actively involved in regional, national, and international challenges to the many political and social issues currently facing the world, there is a very real issue to be address regarding the systems of prestige that underpin the legacy workflows that are themselves predicated on the ownership of rights and the limitations that are put upon such explications of knowledge in the protection of the owner’s copyright.
The door may be ajar
The world of scholarly publishing is in a process of change, and this is why the University is participating in the emerging ‘transformative deals’ with publishers such as Wiley, Sage, and Springer Nature. Unlike the old models where subscriptions provided access, the new deals include Gold open access publishing opportunities, and we have already use these to make articles published openly and thus accessible to anyone with a connection to the internet. We have also liaised with individual academics to optimise the licensing options and apply licenses that maximise the potential to achieve impact.
Open licensing
Please note that there appears to be an issue with the required plugin for the video embedded below. In the meantime, please view the video at: https://players.brightcove.net/3806881048001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6171430413001
With various policies mandating various form of open licensing, and with digital publishing cultures offering new opportunities for increasing impact, we welcome the opportunity to discuss licensing with you! Please do get in touch to arrange anything from informal conversations or training sessions.