Eastern authors ‘risk falling behind’ on visibility and rankings if their work remains behind paywall while US moves to open research, scholars warn
Asian research powerhouses will introduce open access (OA) mandates within the next “two to three” years, experts have predicted, in the wake of last month’s landmark order by the Biden administration.
Under the US decision, the published results of federally funded research must be made immediately and freely available to readers, starting from 2025. This follows the introduction of similar rules across Europe and the UK, spearheaded by the Plan S initiative.
Home to four of the top 10 research-producing countries – China, Japan, South Korea and India – Asia now appears poised to become the next battleground.
“For the first time, there is a real prospect of global alignment around the same principles of immediate open access without embargo,” said Johan Rooryck, executive director of the Coalition S group of funders behind Plan S.
“For some time now, I think many of the larger research countries in Asia had been watching each other to see who would make the first move and were waiting for the US to position itself. Now that has happened, I expect alignment within two to three years.”
Larger countries in the region “should be able to move to OA relatively fast”, especially if they applied rights retention, allowing researchers to keep the rights to their work and deposit accepted manuscripts into institutional or national archives, Professor Rooryck said.
Source: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/asia-tipped-follow-us-lead-open-access-mandates