Committee announces an inquiry into Open Access
21 January 2013
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee today announces its intention to inquire into the Government’s Open Access policy.
Written submissions addressing the Committee’s inquiry are invited by close of business on 7 February 2013. Respondees are requested not to submit copies of responses to other consultations or to the Finch Report.
The Committee will consider a range of topics including:
- The Government’s acceptance of the recommendations of the Finch Group Report ‘Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications’, including its preference for the ‘gold’ over the ‘green’ open access model;
- Rights of use and re-use in relation to open access research publications, including the implications of Creative Commons ‘CC-BY’ licences;
- The costs of article processing charges (APCs) and the implications for research funding and for the taxpayer; and
- The level of ‘gold’ open access uptake in the rest of the world versus the UK, and the ability of UK higher education institutions to remain competitive.
Written evidence should be sent to the Committee, as an MS Word document, by e-mail to biscommem@parliament.uk.
A guide for written submissions to Select Committees may be found at: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/witnessguide.pdf
Parties submitting evidence are requested to follow these guidelines. Email submissions are strongly preferred. If you wish your evidence to remain confidential, please contact the Committee staff.