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 university’s block grant and other resources. In pursuing this path, universities will have to consider, and to consult carefully with their staff, about the precise polices and arrangements that they put in place. For while there are advantages in making researchers and others more aware of the costs of the publication process, they are likely to be nervous about the implication that universities will have significantly greater influence on the specific channels they use to publish and disseminate their work. Moreover, in managing publication funds, universities will have to work together with authors, and in line with the principle of academic freedom, in making judgements about the potential for publication in journals with different levels not only of status, but of APC: cost of publication will thus be a significant consideration for the first time on a large scale and across all disciplines.

7.11. In establishing new arrangements, it will also be important for funders, universities and publishers to work together on three key issues. First, policies and procedures should be agreed and implemented for the high proportion of articles that are produced by authors from more than one institution (often several), and often with multiple sources of funding. Nearly half (46%) of the peer-reviewed articles with a UK author published in 2010 also listed an author from overseas. No clear policy stance has yet emerged for dealing with the growing proportion of publications that are produced in this way. If open access publishing is to grow significantly, all those involved—authors, institution, funders and publishers—need to have clear guidelines on how responsibility for the payment of APCs is to be allocated, or shared, in the various circumstances that can arise with co-authorship; and on the arrangements for payment.

7.12. Second, the transaction costs involved with payments for the 120k articles published by UK authors each year must be minimised, with arrangements for aggregating payments wherever possible and appropriate. Universities, funders and publishers should work together on this, with support from subscription agents and others such as JISC Collections as appropriate. Membership and similar schemes may also have a role to play here.

7.13. Third, all players in the research communications landscape will have to work together to establish policies and arrangements for dealing with publications by researchers with no institutional affiliation, and no sources of funds from which to meet APCs. This is likely to be a particular issue in areas of the social sciences and humanities where the tradition of the independent scholar remains strong. PLoS, BioMedCentral, Hindawi and other open access publishers already have arrangements under which complete or partial waivers of APCs are provided to authors who do not have the funds to meet them.

Costs

7.14. The costs to the UK of a significant speeding-up of moves towards publishing in open access journals will depend on a number of factors. Modelling undertaken by Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) in 2010 for the Open Road study has been revised and updated for the purposes of this report. The new modelling