Since Glenn summoned me to the chat ....

In general, some people feel very strongly that the term open access means something different than public access (and I might go so far as to say there's a general consensus - see Rick's message). But, at the same time, Bronze Open Access is the term used for an open to read but no-reuse license article on a publisher platform, which basically means Bronze OA = public access. And then there's this OSTP document about the financing of US public access, titled "Report to the U.S. Congress on Financing Mechanisms for Open Access Publishing of Federally Funded Research. Office of Science and Technology Policy"  (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Open-Access-Publishing-of-Scientific-Research.pdf), which seems to conflate them. 

So ... shrug? 

 I'd say then that if OA is going to be triggering of negative connotations, sure use a different term. 

One thing to consider though is that many of your faculty likely collaborate with faculty elsewhere and so you'll still need to engage with the OA term. And, likely need to be prepared to either say "oh yes, these are policies about the same thing" (conceptually) or try and make your faculty care about the finer points of this nomenclature debate. 

In the end, your faculty probably care more about "compliance" -- I know that isn't a particularly welcome message, that faculty aren't as a whole really interested in open access though they are very interested in doing the (minimum) required to keep the grant dollars coming. Your administration likely cares even more about compliance than open access. Though, I don't think "compliance" makes good initiative terminology!  

A few Friday afternoon thoughts...

Lisa
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Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
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On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM Glenn Hampson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Megan,

 

Just as the term “open access” is used a wide variety of ways (even by researchers), you’re certain to get a wide variety of opinions to your question. But in my experience anyway, you’re either better off sticking with “open access” (because it’s interpreted in a variety of ways), or calling your repositories “open” or some such (e.g., “in accord with our university’s new open policy, AAM’s can now be deposited here…”). Using “open research” or “open science” might also okay because again, the landscape for these terms is pretty wide open.

 

But “public access” has a pretty specific definition, describing the US federal government’s specific approach to open (in accord with the Holdren memo and other directives). So personally, I think “public access” would be an inaccurate description of what you’re trying to do, and potentially more confusing/misleading than just sticking with some variation of “open.”

 

Curious what Rick, Lisa and other library gurus might suggest though.

 

Good luck!

 

Glenn

 

Glenn Hampson
Executive Director
Science Communication Institute (SCI)

 

 

 

From: OpenCafe-l <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Bean, Megan
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2025 2:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OPENCAFE-L] Pros/Cons to using the phrase "public access" versus "open access"?

 

Hello all: 

 

Our library's Schol Comm team just had an interesting conversation.  We're re-starting campus-wide conversations about open access, with the hope of ending up with an Open Access Policy that (a) clarifies campus support for OA and (b) makes it legally and functionally easier for faculty to deposit their Author Approved Manuscripts in our institutional repository. (And yes, we're behind the OA times compared to many other US universities)

 

A marketing question came up about the term "open access".  There's concerns about residual anti-OA baggage on our campus and also the growing global conflation of the term OA with the troubles of APCs. Might it be better if we ditched the "open access" term? Instead we could follow the federal agencies path of using "public access" in our campus campaign for an OA policy?  (If it's of help to your response, we're a large R1 land grant university located in a politically conservative state with lots of federal funding   - many of our faculty already are / will soon be familiar with the terms used by the federal funding agency grants).

 

Are there any foreseeable downsides in rebranding our campaign towards a "Public Access Policy"? Does it matter if we're out of step with the nomenclature on other campuses?

 

I look forward to your thoughts,

Megan

 

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Megan Bean, J.D. (she/her)
Assistant Professor of Practice, Copyright & Information Policy Specialist
Mississippi State University Libraries
2310 Mitchell Memorial Library
P.O. Box 5408  / Mail Stop 9570
662-325-4619 ; [log in to unmask]

Here to provide information, never legal advice.

 

Booking page for individual appointments:
 https://msstate.libcal.com/appointments/msulibraries?g=24542

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