10 - The view of the research funder

Summary

ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the benefits of Open Access (OA), the challenges that still persist – especially in terms of compliance with funders’ policies – and the costs and sustainability of OA publishing, with particular reference to the work of the Wellcome Trust since 2005. To provide context to the Trust's initiatives, a brief analysis of the OA landscape in the UK, Europe and beyond is also provided. The chapter also discusses the rationale behind the development of eLife, the new OA journal developed by the Wellcome Trust in collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Max Planck Society. Introduction

A study in 2011 estimated that for every $ that the US government invested in the human genome project, $141 of economic activity was generated. As one of the sponsors study observed, ‘from a simple return on investment, the financial stake made in mapping the entire human genome is clearly one of the best uses of taxpayer dollars the U.S. government has ever made’.

This single example demonstrates the benefits that can be reaped from open content, and explains why it is logical for research funders to develop policies that require the outputs of the research they fund to be made freely available, for both humans and machines to read and make use of. Stated simply, it makes absolutely no sense from a return-on-investment perspective for a funder to invest in research but then allow the outputs of that research – most typically the research articles published in peerreviewed journals – to remain hidden behind publishers’ pay walls.

With reference to the work of the Wellcome Trust, this chapter considers the benefits of Open Access (OA), the challenges that still persist – especially in terms of compliance with funders’ policies – and the costs and sustainability of OA publishing. To provide context to the Trust's initiatives, a brief analysis of the OA landscape in the UK, Europe and beyond will also be provided. The chapter will also discuss the rationale behind the development of eLife, the new OA journal developed by the Wellcome Trust in collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Max Planck Society.