Opening the Door for Assessment: Using Open Data to Evaluate Read and Publish Agreements
My Session Status
What:
Talk
When:
11:05 AM, Friday 25 Apr 2025
(20 minutes)
Where:
Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre
- RF-130 Salon Loyola Alumni
The open access movement has shaped current models of scholarly dissemination. With a growing number of Canadian funders (e.g., Tri-Agency, Fonds de recherche du Québec) adopting open access mandates, academic libraries are playing an increasingly active role in supporting scholars as they navigate these requirements. In the last decade, read and publish agreements, which package together library subscription fees and author article processing charges (APCs), have become an increasingly common model for open access publishing.
This growth necessitates standards for evaluating the impact and value of such initiatives. There is, however, little agreement on how these agreements should be assessed and limits on publisher-provided data stand in the way of building benchmarks across institutions and agreements. The aim of this research is to address that gap.
Illustrated using bibliometric data for two Canadian research institutions and the 2023 Wiley-CKRN Read and Publish Agreement, this presentation will propose a scholarly communications framework for assessing these programs at an institutional level using open data. Adapting Butler et al.’s methodology for assessing APC spending on a global scale, five years of article-level bibliometric data from OpenAlex have been merged with five years of journal-level data from Butler et al.’s open APC dataset, allowing for pre- and post-agreement comparisons across four dimensions of value: output, spending (including double-dip savings), dissemination, and collaboration. Notable preliminary findings for one institution indicate overall open access growth under the agreement and significant double dip savings.
The presentation will cover the development of this framework, the methods employed, findings for the two included institutions, and a discussion of future applications. By employing open data in this framework, the ultimate goal of this research is to provide libraries and institutions with a model for evaluating read and publish agreements that allows for collaborative and transparent assessment that is more in line with the movement such agreements are meant to serve.
This growth necessitates standards for evaluating the impact and value of such initiatives. There is, however, little agreement on how these agreements should be assessed and limits on publisher-provided data stand in the way of building benchmarks across institutions and agreements. The aim of this research is to address that gap.
Illustrated using bibliometric data for two Canadian research institutions and the 2023 Wiley-CKRN Read and Publish Agreement, this presentation will propose a scholarly communications framework for assessing these programs at an institutional level using open data. Adapting Butler et al.’s methodology for assessing APC spending on a global scale, five years of article-level bibliometric data from OpenAlex have been merged with five years of journal-level data from Butler et al.’s open APC dataset, allowing for pre- and post-agreement comparisons across four dimensions of value: output, spending (including double-dip savings), dissemination, and collaboration. Notable preliminary findings for one institution indicate overall open access growth under the agreement and significant double dip savings.
The presentation will cover the development of this framework, the methods employed, findings for the two included institutions, and a discussion of future applications. By employing open data in this framework, the ultimate goal of this research is to provide libraries and institutions with a model for evaluating read and publish agreements that allows for collaborative and transparent assessment that is more in line with the movement such agreements are meant to serve.
Discussion