He who pays the piper calls the tune, a saying goes. But what if you would have to pay for the piper, the pipe and the tune three times over – without even calling the tune?
 
What sounds like a bizarre business arrangement is standard practice for academic publishing. At present, taxpayers often have to pay for research three times: they fund the research; they employ the researcher; and then they buy access to published research for a limited number of researchers and students.
 
This week, we are celebrating Open Access Week. Open Access Week is a global event, now in its seventh year, that promotes Open Access as the new norm in scholarship and publishing. The basic principle driving Open Access is that taxpayer-funded research outputs – including journal articles, conference proceedings and research data – should be made openly available to Kiwi taxpayers, including businesses.
 
The cost of accessing published research is growing: New Zealand’s universities and Crown Research Institutions spent an estimated $55 million last year on accessing published research. According to the Association of American Research Libraries, subscription costs for scholarly journals have risen over 387% since 1987 – that is roughly four times the rate of inflation.
 
At the same time, this publishing model locks out the vast majority of its potential readers, including independent researchers, journalists, graduates, businesses, NGOs, policy makers, teachers and the public at large. This means that the social, cultural and economic benefits of taxpayer-funded research – including new research, innovative products, better public policy and a well-informed citizenry – are not fully realised.
 
The good news is that this is quickly changing. Across the world, public funding bodies are insisting that all publicly funded research be made freely available. At Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ, we believe that this openness will make the New Zealand research system more efficient, by lowering transaction costs, and stimulate economic growth by making it easier for businesses to apply research findings.
 
Taxpayers should not be dictating the tunes to academics. But they have every right to access the results of the research they have funded.
 
Elizabeth Heritage is the Communications Lead for Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ, an organisation that provides free open licences and advocates for publicly funded copyright works to be made openly available. Find out more about Open Access Week here.