RE: Maximising research access vs. minimizing copy-editing errors

["David Prosser" <david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk>]

May I quote from the report that Sally mentions of OUP's journal 
Nucleic Acids Research?  On page 113 the three effects of open 
access are listed:

'What then did OA actually deliver? Firstly, it contributed to an 
additional increase in usage of around 7-8%. Secondly, it saw a 
switch of use from abstracts to full-text. Thirdly, it led to a 
significant increase in the usage of newer articles - material 
that had previously been embargoed.'

So, moving to open access increased usage by 8% (which is not the 
same as saying that 8% of the increase came from open access!) 
and user behaviour changed as now they were able to access the 
full text.

It is also noted that the archive (material over 6 months) was 
already freely available so the 8% increase in usage came about 
from opening up 2% of the total number of articles on the site.

David C Prosser PhD
Director
SPARC Europe
E-mail:  david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Morris (ALPSP)
Sent: 28 July 2006 00:36
To: Liblicense
Subject: Re: Maximising research access vs. minimizing copy-editing errors

Maybe we need more information about the actual size of the 
access problem. Publishers tend, I think, to report fairly low 
levels of 'turnaways' - those who try to access full text but 
can't.  If any publishers reading this can contribute figures, 
that would be useful.

A very, very small percentage of accesses to BMJ's free research 
articles are from patients and the general public;  see 
http://miranda.ingentaconnect.com/vl=6377737/cl=15/tt=885/ini=alpsp/nw=1/fm= 
docpdf/rpsv/cw/alpsp/09531513/v16n3/s1/p163.

In OUP's recent study of NAR 
(http://www.oxfordjournals.org/news/oa_report.pdf) only eight to 
twelve percent of increased access was attributable to its going 
OA;  far, far more was due to opening up to search engine 
crawlers.

Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
Email:  sally.morris@alpsp.org