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between research articles and underlying data. They will also need to consider the extent to which they can reduce or eliminate current restrictions on rights of use and re-use. Publishers of open access and hybrid journals should be able to adopt a relaxed attitude to such restrictions. For subscription-based content, however, the issues are more complex, and it would not be reasonable to expect publishers of such content to adopt a CC-BY or similar licence which would allow commercial re-use of the content they publish. Subject to any legislative changes following the Hargreaves review, all publishers will have to consider what arrangements they will put in place to make their content available for text and data mining.
9.27. In seeking to extend licensed access to their journals, all subscription-based publishers should commit themselves to support for the proposal to provide on-site walk-in access to the great majority of journals through public libraries. Discussions are already under way with representatives of public libraries on how to make that initiative work to best effect. We trust that those discussions will be concluded speedily and successfully.
9.28. Subscription-based publishers should work alongside representatives of universities, JISC Collections and the NHS to consider the feasibility and cost of licences to cover the whole of the HE and health sectors; and of licences that would allow universities to provide access to SMEs with which they have a working relationship. More broadly, they should consult with the representative organisations for the public, voluntary and business sectors on the scope for licences that would cover a range of organisations in those sectors, including the costs and how they would be met.
Learned Societies
9.29. Learned societies which publish journals will have to consider all the issues for publishers outlined above. But since most of them are considerably smaller than the large commercial publishers, and they generally operate with small reserves, they are less able to change business models speedily. The risks for them during a transition period that may last for some years thus tend to be greater. The problem may be especially acute for some societies that run high-status journals where the majority of revenues come from readers and their institutions overseas, but the majority of their authors are from the UK.
9.30. At a fundamental level, societies will have to consider how best to fund their scholarly and other activities, and the extent to which it is prudent to rely on the surpluses generated by publishing. It would be wrong to over-protect societies and their publications, or to favour them over other publishers. But funders and policy makers should be aware of the risk that any policies that may undermine the viability of subscription-based journals may also endanger the core activities of key learned societies, and the support they provide to the UK research community and its work.
