RLI 273 31 Public Access to Federally Funded Research ( C O N T I N U E D ) DECEMBER 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC Application of ROI Models to the University Environment This more open model of research is consistent with the research mission of the university to create and disseminate knowledge—and appears to lead to both broader and deeper research while increasing the pace of innovation.* While the major focus of the series of studies recently carried out by Australian economist John Houghton and his colleagues has been on modeling the potential costs and benefits of open access to national funding agencies, the economics of open access is also of deep interest to the higher education community. Consequently, Houghton, joined by UK researcher Alma Swan, conducted a follow-up study examining the likely economic outcomes of open access at an institutional level. Houghton and Swan look at the three most common routes by which open access is currently implemented: • First, through the collection of copies of published articles in repositories while the articles continue to be published in journals and the journals sold on subscription to libraries (“green” open access). • Second, through open access journals that charge an article-processing fee for each article published (“gold” open access). • Third, through repositories collecting unpublished articles and using quality-control services to manage the articles through peer review and to apply editorial procedures on the articles before they are opened up from the university repository (“green” open access with overlay services). Houghton and Swan examined the effects of each potential route on higher education institutions of varying size and research intensity. In their initial findings, the authors find that open access would result in savings for most institutions regardless of the routes that is taken. However, for larger research universities, the level of article processing fee is a key variable—if the charge per article reaches too high a point, “gold” open access may prove more expensive for those institutions. To encourage individual institutions to examine the potential economic impacts of open access under the circumstances specific to their campuses, Houghton and Swan have also provided a working model for open use by the community, available at http://www.cfses.com/EI-ASPM/Institutional EI-ASPM Cost Model (USA).exe. * Digital Connections Council, Committee for Economic Development, Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching, and Learning in Higher Education (Washington, DC: Committee for Economic Development, November 2009), 3, http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/digital_ economy/dcc_opennessedu09.pdf.