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should be greater transparency on these issues. Thus in the context of the mixed model we recommend for the medium term, universities and funders should expect to be able to use their market power as purchasers to bear down on the costs to them of both APCs and subscriptions. One of the key advantages of open access publishing is that it brings greater transparency to the market, with competition on price as well as the status of the journals in which researchers wish to publish. Both are important, and we expect competition to intensify on both fronts. It is equally important, however, that funders and universities should make a firm commitment to ensuring that a high-quality publishing system is sustained and enhanced to underpin—and to maximise the benefits that are derived from—the world-leading performance of the UK research community: cost-effectiveness, not cheapness, should be the aim
Dependencies and risks
8.47. Our recommendations amount to a balanced package of measures to be taken to increase access to research publications and to accelerate the transition to open access publishing. They involve some compromises and trade-offs on the part of each of the key players and stakeholders in the research communications system; and it is important therefore that no single measure should be taken in isolation. For we are clear that effective and sustainable progress depends on continuing co-operation and good will between all the parties.
8.48. It is important also to stress the risks we have noted in the course of this report: risks for universities, funders, libraries, publishers, learned societies, for researchers, and not least for the success and standing of the UK and its research community. The first area of risk we highlight concerns the importance of maintaining a high-quality, sustainable publishing system that disseminates quality-assured research findings, and provides high standards of service to both authors and readers. We lay stress on this because we believe that such a system is a fundamental part of the ecology of research and the contribution it makes to society and the economy both in the UK and in the rest of the world.
8.49. A second area of risk relates to the achievability of real and effective increases in access to those publications, and of an accelerated transition to open access publishing funded by APCs. As we have stressed throughout this report, there are limits to what can be achieved in the UK alone, since although it is a leading research nation, its researchers are responsible for only a relatively small minority of the world’s publications. Effective increases in access—and moves towards open access publication—depend in large part on actions in other countries.
8.50. A third area of risk relates to costs, particularly during a transition period that is likely to last for some years. The transition will not be cost-free, especially for the UK as an early adopter. Our judgement is that the costs will not be huge, but we cannot be precise, since too many variables remain uncertain. Hence it is important that the costs are shared by all the key players in the system.
