About us

ALPSP is the international trade association which supports and represents not-for-profit organizations that publish scholarly and professional content, and those that work with them.

Governance

ALPSP is a not-for-profit organization and is governed by the board of directors which is responsible for the management of the business and provides strategic direction.

Committees

ALPSP identifies focus areas and priorities for activity through the work of its committees. Anyone working at a member organization is eligible to serve on a committee, subject to vacancies.

The UK House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee is conducting an inquiry into the implementation by Research Councils UK (RCUK) of the Government’s open access policy [pdf]. The closing date for written evidence was Friday 18 January and ALPSP submitted a response. [pdf]

The inquiry is focussing on 4 areas:

support for universities through funds to cover article processing charges
embargo periods for articles published under open access
engagement with publishers, universities learned societies and other stakeholders in developing the new open access policies
how the Government should address the concerns raised by the scientific and publishing communities about the policy

ALPSP has questioned whether RCUK are indeed following the recommendation from the Finch Group, which the UK Government fully endorsed. We also question whether it is acceptable that demands be made for services provided by publishers without appropriate remuneration (green OA). We have highlighted both publisher and academic concerns regarding short embargoes which remove the business model that supports the provision of services supporting peer review. We also question whether the demand for CC-BY licences for gold OA is still necessary, in light of the recent UK Government announcement of an exception for text and data mining.

ALPSP has expressed its disappointment that those wishing to push the OA agenda forward have not discussed all the options with all stakeholders (as per the Finch Group), before pressing ahead with mandates that have the potential to considerably disrupt scholarly communication. Given that RCUK announced its OA policy on the same day that David Willetts endorsed the finding of the Finch Group, there can hardly have been time for stakeholder collaboration.

Interestingly, another related inquiry has just been announced. The Department of Business Information and Skills (BIS) Committee is undertaking a short inquiry into the Government’s OA policy, including the acceptance of the Finch recommendations, CC-BY licences, APCs and UK v rest of the world OA uptake. The closing date is Thursday 7 February 2013.

Audrey McCulloch
Chief Executive
22 January 2013

House of Lords Sci & Tech Committee inquiry

RCUK OA policy

UK Government’s endorsement of the Finch recommendations

ALPSP response

BIS Committee inquiry into open access