KISTI cooperating with library group to accelerate open access

[Photo provided = KISTI]

On 22nd of this month Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI President: Kim Jae-soo) made a concordat of cooperation with College Library Association (KUCLA President: Oh Sae-hoon) and Korea Special Library Association (KSLA President: Oh Jung-hoon). The concordat is made to rationalize the high-priced and monopolistic Korean academic environment by shifting the subscription based digital information consortium into an open access based system.

Subscription fees of academic journals have been a burden to libraries due to its rate of rise which was 2 to 3 times higher than inflation rate. Enlargement of electronic journal package caused by increase of publications of journals and science articles and M&A of publishers and the monopolistic aspect of academic journals are responsible for the high rate of rise.

Owing to the big deal of electronic journals made in late 90s libraries could manage subscriptions easily by paying reasonable fee. The high price increase however libraries could not afford the fees while it allowed the big four publishers to make 32 to 42% of business profits. This crisis is halting researchers by forcing them high prices when they need access to academic articles for research.

As a response universities and library consortiums of US and Europe are trying substitute their big deal contracts to open access contracts. According to an open access contract registration site (https://esac-initiative.org/) 326 contracts are made by 45 publishers of 34 countries. The contract ensures open access publishing and the right of access to electronic journals while paying year ago level of fee.

December of 2020 25 institutes under National Research Council of Science and Technology has shifted their contract to open access from 2021 for 2 years and secured accessibility to academic journals and substantial open access publishing rights by support of KISTI. KISTI has been building open access infrastructure for a long time. They have been spreading open access policies constructing open access repository and self-archiving publishing open access journals and helping open access contracts.

The three institutes are going to actively cooperate to spread open access policy and shift to open access contract of universities and research institutes. KUCLA is university library consortium that pays 80% of academic journal subscription fee. KSLA is a special library consortium that participates in management of libraries of research public and medical institutes. KISTI is the manage department of the special library consortium and supports open access researches and infrastructure.

President Oh of KUCLA said that open access is necessary to overcome universities overpay and double payment of academic journals and lower the huddle of information access to stimulate academic communications of researchers. He wishes that the concordat contributes to the spread of open access.

President of KSLA said that the concordat enabled university libraries and special libraries to cooperate so that the competence of KISTI may be utilized. He added that policy financial support of government is essential for utilization of open access of researchers and institutes

President Kim said that he is aiming to support national R&D innovation by open science which is including open access open data and open collaboration. He hopes that the implementation of open access may enforce collaborative culture among libraries.

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