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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>The fourth Q&A in a series exploring the current state of Open Access has been published. On this occasion the questions are answered by </span><a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/about/staff/joseph.shtml"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Heather Joseph</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>A former journal publisher, Joseph has in her time worked for both Elsevier and the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2005, however, she changed direction and became Executive Director for the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (</span><a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/about/staff/joseph.shtml"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>SPARC</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>), an alliance of academic and research libraries created in 1998 by the Association of Research Libraries. SPARC’s original </span><a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may00/johnson/05johnson.html"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>mission</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> was to “use libraries’ buying power to nurture the creation of high-quality, low-priced publication outlets for peer-reviewed scientific, technical, and medical research.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Subsequently SPARC also changed direction, becoming an OA advocacy group. And under Joseph’s able leadership SPARC has proved extremely effective at making the case for OA, and persuading researchers, institutions, funders and governments to embrace OA. In particular, Joseph led SPARC’s efforts to secure the US National Institutes of Health </span><a href="http://publicaccess.nih.gov/"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Public Access Policy</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>, and the recent </span><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>White House Directive on Public Access to the Results of Publicly Funded Research</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>In </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Access2Research_Founders.JPG"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>May last year</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>, for instance, Joseph — along with OA advocates </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilbanks"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>John Wilbanks</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_W._Carroll"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Michael Carroll</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>, and publisher </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rossner"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Mike Rossner</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> — met with </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holdren"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>John Holdren</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stebbins"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Mike Stebbins</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (</span><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>OSPT</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>). As a follow-up to the meeting they organised a </span><a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-free-access-over-internet-scientific-journal-articles-arising-taxpayer-funded-research/wDX82FLQ"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>White House petition</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'> calling for “free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research”. The petition quickly attracted the requisite 25,000 signatures needed to trigger a response from the government, which came this February in the shape of the White House </span><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Memorandum</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Importantly, the Memorandum directs “each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures to develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the Federal Government”.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>But for me there is no better evidence of the efficacy of SPARC’s activities than the contents of an exchange I had a couple of years ago with an employee of one of the larger traditional scholarly publishers. When I suggested that perhaps publishers ought to stop lobbying against OA and learn to love it, my interlocutor’s face expressed a complicated mix of emotions — including exasperation and muted anger, but also (I felt) some admiration for the OA movement. He replied, “It’s not just publishers who are lobbying you know.” Then a few seconds later he added, “I’ll tell you what, if you can get SPARC to stop lobbying against us we will stop lobbying against Open Access.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Since then the OA movement has gone from strength to strength, in what has become a classic David and Goliath contest — a smallish group of impecunious but tireless OA advocates lined up against an army of well-heeled corporations determined to stop them. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>But how things will end we do not yet know. What is certain, as Joseph concedes, is that “much still needs to be done” before the OA movement can claim to have succeeded in its aims. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Earlier contributors to this series include palaeontologist </span><a href="http://poynder.blogspot.pt/2013/07/open-access-where-are-we-what-still.html"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Mike Taylor</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>, cognitive scientist </span><a href="http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/where-are-we-what-still-needs-to-be.html"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Stevan Harnad</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>, and former librarian </span><a href="http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/fred-friend-on-state-of-open-access.html"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Fred Friend</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'>Joseph’s Q&A can be read here:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"'><a href="http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/fred-friend-on-state-of-open-access.html">http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/fred-friend-on-state-of-open-access.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>