Page:Finch Group report.pdf/53

 5. Recent Policy Developments

5.1. Finding ways to improve the flows of the available stock of knowledge has become in recent years a matter of increasing interest to Governments as well as for organisations involved in funding and conducting research. Such measures are seen as promoting


 * enhanced transparency, openness and accountability, and public engagement with research;


 * closer linkages between research and innovation, with benefits for public policy and services, and for economic growth;


 * improved efficiency in the research process itself, through increases in the amount of information that is readily accessible, reductions in the time spent in finding it, and greater use of the latest tools and services to organise, manipulate and analyse it; and


 * increased returns on the investments made in research, especially the investments from public funds.

5.2. For all these reasons, there is an increasing tendency across Government and other bodies, both in the UK and elsewhere, to regard the information generated by researchers as a public good; and to promote the reduction, if not the complete removal, of barriers to access. Such ideas are associated with pursuit of the mutual benefits that can arise from the free movement of goods and services, and, by extension, information; and from open innovation in a world where knowledge is widely distributed, and where much ‘intangible’ innovation activity is underpinned by openness and collaboration. Also associated with such ideas is a recognition that communication and dissemination are integral parts of the research process itself; and a growing acknowledgement that the costs of those processes are a proper call on research budgets.

5.3. There is also a recognition, however, that existing barriers should not be replaced by new ones; that moves to promote open access must therefore include measures to ensure that the costs can be met; and that the performance and standing of the UK research community should not be put at risk.

5.4. A number of studies in recent years have sought to identify the costs and benefits associated with moves to increase access to the published outputs of research. There are considerable difficulties in gathering the data necessary to underpin such studies; and the modelling on which calculations of costs and benefits are based is complex, involving assumptions which are often controversial.