Matthew Harvey, Evidence Broker, Department for International Development

1. What difference to the
sustainability of open access can
(a donor like) DFID make?
Matthew Harvey, UK Department for
International Development (DFID)
Contact: openaccess@dfid.gov.uk

2. What difference to the sustainability of open
access can (a donor like) DFID make?
1. Background to DFID and our interest in research
and evidence
2. DFID and OA so far, focusing on DFID’s OA
policy
3. DFID and the sustainability of OA into the future

3. 1. DFID and research evidence
•Activities framed by the MDGs
•Work directly in 27 countries across
Africa, Asia and the Middle East
•Results focused
•Increasingly evidence informed
•Want to use the best available evidence in
our policies and programmes

4. DFID’s Research and Evidence Division (RED)
•£222m ($357m) in 2011-12 and rising spent
on centrally commissioned research through
RED
•Research is also commissioned through DFID
country offices and policy departments

5. Allocation of RED research budget by theme
(2009-2011)
Human development 32%
Agriculture 27%
Climate and Environment
12%
Governance, conflict,
social development 10%
Research uptake 8%
Growth 5%
Other 6%

6. RED’s mission
• Identify and generate the best
evidence, knowledge, technology and ideas to improve the
effectiveness of development
• Convey these to inform and influence policy, programmes
and practice for poverty reduction
• Both those of DFID and everyone else (global public good)
• But for our activities to be properly evidence informed, we
require access to the total evidence base
• We also find ourselves on the wrong side of the access
barrier!

7. 2. DFID and open access so far …
• Some programmes address some facets of open access
– PERii (Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information) run
by INASP
– e.g. Journals Online; repository development; inclusion and
visibility of developing countries within the open access
community; bandwidth management training
– MK4D open access advocacy programme
– e.g. case studies on Brazil, South Africa and India to be published
soon; webinar: ‘Open Access: are Southern voices being stifled?’
• DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy

9. DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy
• Launched in July 2012, effective from 1 November
• Open access: irrevocable and free online access by
any user worldwide to full-text/full version scientific
and scholarly material
• Enhanced access: steps taken to help users
find, view and download materials

10. The primary
objectives are to:
• increase the number of
research outputs that are
open access
• increase information to help
locate research outputs
• increase the accessibility of
outputs

11. Some key features:
• Access and accessibility
• ‘Outputs’: journal articles, reports, books and book
chapters, datasets, multi-media, websites, software, …
• Access and Data Management Plan required for all projects
• Associated costs included in research budget
• Preference for gold over green OA
• Self-archive within 6 months
• Deposit datasets in an open access repository within 12
months of final data collection
• DFID institutional repository: R4D (www.dfid.gov.uk/R4D/)

12. 3. What next for DFID?
• Basic choices:
1. Service our own policy (e.g. develop it, work on
compliance)
2. + get involved in UK domestic and cross-government
discussion
3. +/or get involved in international discussion
4. +/or develop a DFID OA strategy and associated
activities that consider OA as an issue in its own right
#4 is (perhaps) the obvious choice for
maximum support to OA and OA sustainability

13. A DFID OA strategy and associated activities
framed by sustainability?
• OA is sustainable when:
the ideal of open access is met, and the new
system endures, not slipping back to the (more
closed) current or past situation, or collapsing
entirely
• At what point in the entire system could and should
DFID intervene to support OA sustainability?

14. Limiting conditions:
• OA not an end in itself
• Continued interest requires demonstrable/plausible
impact on poverty reduction
• Budget (up to, say, a few million US$?)
• DFID staff (say, 25% of a person?)
• So, what to do?

15. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

16. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

17. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

18. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

19. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

20. Points of engagement in the system:
Geography Unit of analysis Open/enhanced access
of what
Local Individual Publications
National Local institution Data
Regional National institutions Knowledge
International International institutions OERs
IT infrastructure

21. Each combination lends itself to a different type
of activity
• Capacity building • Policy/regulation
• Convening development
• Bank-rolling (e.g • Research (e.g. on impacts,
journals, repositories, APCs) best practice, business
• Seed-funding to users or models, …)
providers to stimulate market • ICT infrastructure building
• Awareness raising •…
• Debating, discussing, lobbyin
g

22. What difference to the sustainability of open
access can (a donor like) DFID make?
• So what to do?
• What criteria should be applied to all these options in order to
prioritise them?
• How can we assess the actual or likely impact of all the
options?
• Ideas gratefully received!