In a recent preprint,
Houghton & Sheehan (2006), using estimates from economic modeling, have confirmed the substantial potential enhancement of the return on resource investment in research if the resulting articles are made Open Access:
The Economic Impact of Enhanced Access to Research Findings
John Houghton & Peter Sheehan
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Victoria University, July 2006.
Excerpts:
"Whether applied across the board or to sector specific research findings (e.g. open access to publicly funded research) it seems that there may be substantial potential benefits to be gained from more open access. For example [GERD = Gross Expenditure on Research and Development]...- With Germany's GERD at USD 58.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 3 billion;
- With Japan's GERD at USD 112.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 5.8 billion;
- With the United Kingdom's GERD at USD 33.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 1.7 billion; and
- With the United State's GERD at USD 312.5 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 16 billion.
"While it is impossible to calculate the quantum of benefits with certainty, these simple estimates of the potential impacts of enhanced access on returns to R&D suggest that a move towards more open access may have substantial positive impacts...
"Given substantial R&D expenditures and the scale of the potential impacts identified in this preliminary work, these issues represent fertile ground for further policy relevant inquiry."
These estimates agree substantially with prior estimates that have been made (e.g., for the
UK,
Canada and
Australia, see references below: Harnad 2005a,b,c).
Research Funding Councils and Universities worldwide are at last beginning to realise that it is high time (indeed
well overdue) to maximise the returns on their research investment by
mandating Open Access self-archiving (see references below: Harnad et al. 2003; Sale 2006a,b,c,d; Swan 2006).
References
Harnad, S., Carr, L., Brody, T. & Oppenheim, C. (2003)
Mandated online RAE CVs Linked to University Eprint Archives: Improving the UK Research Assessment Exercise whilst making it cheaper and easier.
Ariadne 35 (April 2003).
Harnad, S. (2005a)
Making the case for web-based self-archiving.
Research Money 19 (16).
Harnad, S. (2005b)
Maximising the Return on UK's Public Investment in Research.
Harnad, Stevan (2005c)
Australia Is Not Maximising the Return on its Research Investment. In Steele, Prof Colin, Eds.
Proceedings National Scholarly Communications Forum 2005, Sydney, Australia.
Harnad, S. (2006)
Opening Access by Overcoming Zeno's Paralysis, in Jacobs, N., Eds.
Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects, chapter 8. Chandos.
Sale, Arthur (2006a)
Researchers and institutional repositories, in Jacobs, Neil, Eds.
Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects, chapter 9, pages 87-100. Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Limited.
Sale, Arthur (2006b)
Comparison of IR content policies in Australia.
First Monday 11(4).
Sale, Arthur (2006c)
The impact of mandatory policies on ETD acquisition.
D-Lib Magazine 12(4).
Sale, Arthur (2006d)
Generic Risk Analysis - Open Access for your institution. Technical Report, School of Computing, University of Tasmania.
Sale, Arthur (2006e)
Maximizing the research impact of your publications. Technical Report, School of Computing, University of Tasmania.
Sale, Arthur (2006f)
The acquisition of open access research articles.
First Monday 11(10) October
Shadbolt, N., Brody, T., Carr, L. and Harnad, S. (2006)
The Open Research Web: A Preview of the Optimal and the Inevitable, in Jacobs, N., Eds.
Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects, chapter 20. Chandos.
Swan, A. (2006)
The culture of Open Access: researchers' views and responses, in Jacobs, N., Eds.
Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects, chapter 7. Chandos.
Prior American Scientist Open Access Forum Topic Threads:"What Provosts Need to Mandate" (2003)
"Maximising the Return on UK's Public Investment in Research" (2005)
Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum
