80% of journals allow self-archiving of peer-reviewed articles

New information has been provided by SHERPA services that shows encouraging statistics for journals in the SHERPA/RoMEO* database. Their blog headline states that 60% of journals allow immediate self-archiving of peer-reviewed articles. When embargoes are taken into account, this rises to 80%.

This means that authors can make their final author versions, or in some cases the publisher's pdf, available online via the 'green' open access route. This can usually be done by depositing in a repository such as Research@StAndrews:FullText - for St Andrews authors that means simply adding an author version to their publication in PURE. The Library will do the rest, including applying any embargo.

See more about open access on our library web pages.

If we consider all versions of an article, including the submitted (pre-print) version, 87% of journals allow immediate open access self-archiving. And if we take into account all versions, embargoes, and restrictions such as special permissions or fees, 95% of journals formally allow self-archiving. These detailed statistics are now possible because RoMEO provides publisher policies at journal level. As of 15 Nov 2011 the database held approximately 19,000 journal titles.

SHERPA Services blog

*RoMEO is a searchable database of publisher's policies regarding the self-archiving of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.

Open access making a real difference

A new website has been launched to provide real examples of the way that open access can transform scholarship. One of the stories describes the overwhelming response for St Andrews researchers following the decision to publish in an open access journal. The topic of the paper caught the public imagination when described as development of an 'invisibility cloak' in the University press release.

"As a result of the coverage, the paper was downloaded more than 50,000 times in the space of just a few months, and it reached an extremely wide and diverse audience for a technical scientific paper."

Flexible metamaterials at visible wavelengths by Andrea Di Falco, Martin Ploschner and Thomas F Krauss
http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/12/11/113006

Read more open access success stories at http://www.oastories.org/ including:

Professor Tony Doyle, CERN Atlas
Using open access to collaborate on the largest experiment in the world – and inspire the next generation of particle physicists
Open Book Publishers
Cambridge scholars taking monograph publishing into their own hands

Range of content being used in Research@StAndrews:FullText

In our top ten most viewed items this month (Oct) we have published articles, e-theses, a technical report, e-book and article from a hosted University journal. It is great to see such a range of items being used in our repository, Research@StAndrews:FullText.

Our new download statistics are giving us further insight into usage of these research outputs. We will soon be able to display these on new pages at Research@StAndrews:FullText, but in the meantime here is a selection from our first list:

1. Retrospective power analysis (60) - consistently our most viewed article in the repository
2. Subverting space : Private, public and power in three Czechoslovak films from the 1960s and ‘70s (34) - recommended reading for our film Studies students
3. Variation in habitat preference and distribution of harbour porpoises west of Scotland (24) - Biology thesis
4. “Proven patriots”: the French diplomatic corps, 1789-1799 (24) - popular e-book from our St Andrews Studies in French History and Culture series
5. Comparing pre- and post-construction distributions of long-tailed ducks Clangula hyemalis in and around the Nysted offshore wind farm, Denmark (21) - Technical report from the Centre for Research into Ecological & Environmental Modelling (CREEM)