RCUK open-access review to quiz publishers

Nine academic publishers are to give evidence in person to an independent review of UK research councils' policy on open access.

Publishers ranging from large commercial companies such as Elsevier and Taylor & Francis to the open-access start-up Ubiquity Press and the learned society publisher Institute of Physics Publishing are to give evidence to the review of Research Councils UK’s open access policy chaired by former University of Leicester vice-chancellor Bob Burgess.

The review is aimed at helping RCUK understand how effective its open-access policy has been and what impact it has had on universities, research organisations, publishers and researchers. RCUK’s open-access policy came into effect in April 2013, when the body shared £17 million between 84 institutions to pay for academic papers published in the following year to be made open access.