Free-for-all on academic research papers

Taxpayer-funded research will be accessible to all within within six months of publication

The results of publicly funded engineering research will be available free of charge under a new “open access” policy, the government has said.

The changes come after sociologist Dame Janet Finch issued a report recommending that more people should be able to read and use the publications arising from research. Universities and science minister, David Willetts, said: “Removing paywalls that surround taxpayer-funded research will have real economic and social benefits. It will allow academics and businesses to develop and commercialise their research more easily and herald a new era of academic discovery. This development will provide exciting new opportunities and keep the UK at the forefront of global research to drive innovation and growth.” Under the new policy, all research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council must be freely accessible to all within six months of publication.

Only some academic papers are published in open-access journals. The rest are available only to those who subscribe to journals, pay a fee to access a particular article, or are prepared to wait for research to be uploaded into public repositories once a publisher’s embargo on free access has expired. 

Commenting on the decision, Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of Universities, said: “The Finch report said universities should not be expected to bear the brunt of additional costs of moving to open access. The government’s plan to reduce shrinking research pots in order to fund open access is robbing Peter to pay Paul and the true costs are as yet unknown.”