Manager

How can open access benefit you?

Generating new knowledge is a core task of universities and knowledge centres, one that demands huge investment. This investment also carries with it a responsibility on the part of research institutes to make their results as widely available as possible.

The open access model can also save a lot of money. See Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation.

What can you do?

• Promote awareness within your institution about sharing the results of research.
• Encourage your institution to devise policy whereby its researchers publish in open access via a repository.
• If assessing research applications, don’t consider only prestige or impact factor, but also look at new, more open forms of publication.
• Does your institution have its own rules relating to intellectual property? Does it promote open access? Be aware of these issues and play a role in their development.
• Work with your institute’s library on the delivery of open access services.
• Encourage your library to join SPARC Europe, an alliance of research libraries and research organisations aimed at open digital scholarship.