Finch Group report.pdf/46

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46

with POD and enhanced services or multimedia content available but charged-for.[1] The benefit to publishers and authors of such a system would be to reduce risk, enabling publishers to concentrate on service provision and added value. The benefit to participating libraries is that they would secure access to a value-added version at a discount, as distinct from other organisations and individuals who would have to pay for anything other than the open access version. Whether such a system, or some variant of it, is feasible is not yet clear; but we believe that it is in the interests of the research community to support further experimentation in finding ways to promote the development and use of e-monographs in general, and open access monographs in particular. Until that happens, it is difficult to encompass monographs within the discussion about promoting wider access to publications.

Access and use: gaps and barriers

4.32. In one sense, everyone in the UK can gain access to any of the published findings of research conducted in the UK or worldwide, so long as they are aware of its existence, they have access to the internet, and they (or someone else on their behalf) are prepared to pay for it. Gaps are therefore inseparable from the notion of barriers to access: gaps occur when someone is unable to access and use publications relevant to their work or other needs, because the publication is not available from sources that they are able or willing to use. Some of the barriers that arise include

- lack of awareness or inability to discover publications that are available;

- lack of membership of a library that has purchased a licence;

- lack of access to appropriate hardware and software;

- content being made available only in an inconvenient format (e.g. in print or a flat PDF file),or only after an embargo period;

- publications available in a version other than the version of record;

- content available only in a library, rather than anywhere with internet access

- a requirement to pay for access an amount the user considers disproportionate;

- conflict between author or publisher rights and the desired use of the content;

- digital rights or technical protection technologies that prevent the desired use of the content.[2]

1. ↑ For a detailed list of OA monograph publishing models, with examples, see http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/OA_book_business_models. The proposal from Frances Pinter, formerly of Bloomsbury Academic, for library consortia to cover first copy production costs is outlined in a presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/C_C_I/frances-pinterthe-future-of-the-academic-monograph.; and in a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niyYWVa2w6w.

2. ↑ . Access to scholarly content: gaps and barriers, RIN, Publishing Research Consortium and JISC, 2011

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Finch Group report.pdf/46

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