UK's tax-funded boffinry to be published FREE for all • The Register

“The government broadly backed recommendations contained in a report by the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings in its policy aimed at supporting 'open access' to research. The seven UK Research Councils will provide universities that establish 'publication funds' with grants in order that the organisations can pay publishers an 'article processing charge' (APC) to publish their work. ‘In all cases universities upon receipt of funding should transfer these charges to their institutional publication fund,’ Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said in a formal response [5-page 93KB PDF] to Dame Janet Finch who chaired the Working Group. ‘A university can then use these funds to pay for APCs for any article resulting from research council funding.’ ‘Research Councils will monitor compliance with its policies at grant level through its outputs systems. Once Research Councils have established the payment mechanism, operational details will be set in discussions with the academic community,’ he said. Willetts said that the government recognises that while open access ‘means free access to the user and full right of search’, that there is still a cost associated with the process... ‘Where APCs are paid to publishers, the government would expect to see unrestricted access and use of the subject content and the details of how this should be best achieved will be addressed in the detailed policy statements to be published by funding bodies,’ Willetts said... Funding body Research Councils UK (RCUK) has outlined a new policy on 'open access' that will apply to "qualifying publications" from 1 April 2013... Under the RCUK's open access policy commercial use of research work would be legitimate, providing accreditation to the author is made. ‘Criteria which journals must fulfil to be compliant with the Research Councils’ Open Access policy are detailed within the policy, but include offering a 'pay to publish' option or allowing deposit in a subject or institutional repository after a mandated maximum embargo period,’ RCUK said in a statement. ‘In addition, the policy mandates use of the Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ license (CC-BY), when an Article Processing Charge (APC) is levied. The CC-BY licence allows others to modify, build upon and/or distribute the licensed work (including for commercial purposes) as long as the original author is credited.’ ‘The Research Councils will provide block grants to eligible UK Higher Education Institutions, approved independent research organisations and Research Council Institutes to support payment of the APCs associated with ‘pay-to-publish’. ‘In parallel, eligible organisations will be expected to set-up and manage their own publication funds...’ The UK Publishers' Association welcomed the plans. ‘Now that the UK government has set out its position clearly, and as all the elements in the Finch ‘balanced package’ can be seen to be moving forward, then publishers will play their part by delivering the initiative for walk-in access in public libraries and for extending access to high-technology SMEs," the trade body said in a statement.’”