[GOAL] Subscription Costs - Full Disclosure

Wed May 11 08:26:30 BST 2016

Here the specific spendings from the University of Geneva: https://wisspub.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/2016-04-14-bibliotheque-unige_depenses_20160316.xlsx <https://wisspub.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/2016-04-14-bibliotheque-unige_depenses_20160316.xlsx>

In fact as private citizen I’m trying to get these numbers for every University in Switzerland, but it’s quite a time consuming effort, as - even after the decision in Geneva - the Universities and their libraries are unwilling to disclose this information and I have to make an appeal almost every time in order to get the numbers (and an appeal can take two years!). I’m constantly blogging about my efforts here: https://wisspub.net/2014/10/13/intransparenz-bei-den-bibliotheksausgaben-von-schweizer-hochschulen/ <https://wisspub.net/2014/10/13/intransparenz-bei-den-bibliotheksausgaben-von-schweizer-hochschulen/>
At the bottom you find a table with all current decisions and currently received numbers so far (including the University of Bern and Zurich, as well as the ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne).

Actually there is a wiki page from OKF about collecting this approaches: http://wiki.okfn.org/Open_Access/OA_FOI <http://wiki.okfn.org/Open_Access/OA_FOI>  (The Numbers from Argentina will make a great addition)

Given the fact, that these numbers are so essential in the current debate about the transformation to OA, it’s really a shame that we only have so little solid specific information about the current costs of the system. It’s really about time to open this black box and I really admire the work that has been done in this direction already at UK: http://doi.org/10.16995/olh.72 <http://doi.org/10.16995/olh.72>

Best regards

Christian Gutknecht

> Am 10.05.2016 um 23:53 schrieb Jean-Claude Guédon <jean.claude.guedon at umontreal.ca>:
> 
> I just had a great time reading the decision of the court.
> 
> Bravo!
> 
> Could you share the information you finally obtained? I would love to see it, and so would the head of libraries in my university who is presently engaged in a wrestling match with Nature-Springer.
> 
> For my part, allow me to point this list to the following documents:
> 
> 1. A list of expenses by the Government of Argentina for various publishers and several years( attached)
> 
> 2. Something equivalent, but in the form of annual reports for Chile:  http://www.cincel.cl/content/view/90/50/ <http://www.cincel.cl/content/view/90/50/> .
> 
> In both of these countries, agreements with publishers are made public by law.
> 
> Apparently, the same is true in Uruguay but I have not yet found the right place or person to ferret out this information.
> 
> There is a need to centralize all this information, by the way. OAD perhaps ?
> 
> 
> Jean-Claude Guédon
> Professeur titulaire
> Littérature comparée
> Université de Montréal
> <jc-1.jpg>
> 
> 
> Le mardi 10 mai 2016 à 23:16 +0200, Christian Gutknecht a écrit :
>> Hi all
>> 
>> 
>> The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has released an Open Access Monitoring Report 2013-2015: http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/Monitoringbericht_Open_Access_2015_e.pdf <http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/Monitoringbericht_Open_Access_2015_e.pdf>
>> 
>> The OA status of 17'000 publications reported to be output of SNSF funded projects published between 2013 and 2014 an have been checked, and an OA share of at least 39% (or 56% if you also count freely papers on websites, but not repositories as green OA) was found. This validated OA ratio is much higher, than what authors have self declared in the grant administration system to be Open Access (20%).
>> 
>> 
>> Also financial reports of grants have been checked for publications related costs. These costs have not been categorized separately in the grant administration system and therefore no specific data was available until now. The check revealed that the uptake of APCs is still quite moderate, despite the SNSF has started in 2013 to pay explictly APCs up to 3000 CHF during the grant lifetime. The check also revealed that hybrid OA articles were funded, although that’s not in line with the SNSF regulations. For the future a more rigorous control system will be established to prevent paying for hybrid OA. Further it was also noted, that a significant amount of costs were attributed to publication costs not related to Open Access, like overlength charges, color charges or author's contributions. These charges no longer appear to be appropriate and are likely to be covered on a much more restrictive basis in future.
>> 
>> 
>> It was also announced that the SNSF together with swissuniversities (the association of all Swiss Universities) has commissioned a study „Financial flow analysis of scientific publishing in Switzerland“. The mandate was awarded to Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA), in collaboration with Professor John Houghton, Melbourne. The results are expected to be in by the end of the year and should lead to specific action. See: http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/Finanzflussanalyse_e.pdf <http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/Finanzflussanalyse_e.pdf>
>> 
>> Additionally, a Swiss court has ruled recently, that accepted non-disclosure agreements in contracts with publishers can’t annul the local transparency law. So in the specific case, the University of Geneva had to disclose what they have been paying to Elsevier, Springer and Wiley. Here the decision of the court (in French): https://wisspub.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/2016-02-29-decision-cour-de-justice.pdf <https://wisspub.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/2016-02-29-decision-cour-de-justice.pdf>
>> 
>> Best Regards
>> 
>> 
>> Christian Gutknecht
>> 
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