Collaboration is the key to access: A scientific publisher’s view

AuthorCarlo Scollo Lavizzari
PositionAttorney, Lenz Caemmerer, Basel, Switzerland, Legal Counsel to STM: The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers

Publishers are able to license the use of the content they publish on open access terms (i.e. free of charge, unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse) to targeted readers and the wider public. Licensing partners include consortia of institutional libraries, and sometimes an entire region or country may establish a national or regional license to ensure readers have ready access to content within a geographically defined area.

Scientific and scholarly literature is widely available around the world, either through commercial offerings or open access initiatives. While those advocating for international discussions on exceptions and limitations to copyright law at WIPO may not agree, this is nevertheless a reality.

The problem currently facing the publishing industry and its users is not availability as such, but the need to improve accessibility and discoverability. The rapid growth in the number and range of access initiatives and commercial licensing models to make content available demonstrates the rising demand for these services.

It is misleading to interpret decreases in document delivery through a single established delivery channel, such as libraries, as a gap in access (see “Time for a single global copyright framework for libraries and archives”, WIPO Magazine, Issue 6/2015). The use of libraries, may be decreasing for a variety of reasons, not least because other access mechanisms are already providing services that meet the needs of users. Such mechanisms include subscription models, open access, rental models and sharing through the social networks used by scientists and researchers. The success or discontinuation of one particular access channel should not, in my view, be held up as an issue requiring the attention of international policymakers.

Digital initiatives that help bridge access gaps

There are an expanding range of initiatives to help readers access materials, especially those for whom reading materials were previously in short supply. For example, STM publishers are actively engaged in several key initiatives to improve access for institutions in least developed countries and developing countries (as designated by the United Nations) at reduced cost or, in some cases, no cost. These include Research4Life, INASP and EIFL.

INASP serves 1,900 developing-country institutions. Its library partners have access to up to 50,000 online journals and 20,000 ebooks through access and availability programs. The scope of...

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