Despite the growing demand for open access research data, taxpayer-sponsored research is often inaccessible to the public and is located behind the paid gate of a multi-billion dollar industry, writes ERR News.
Alongside technology giants (like Google) that earn billions, there is also a less visible industry that works in a business model that raises ethical questions. This is research journalism. Large publishers earn billions of euros by selling research back to the universities that conducted it. Universities that have paid for the entire course of the research with state budget funds – from the salaries of scientists to the pens.
Many science enthusiasts have encountered a situation where a promising article title takes you to a paid website, where access to the information costs up to several dozen euros. This raises the question – why pay again for research that has also been indirectly paid for by the public. According to the Estonian Research Council (ETAg), 68% of scientific publications related to Estonia were open access in 2023. This is a significant increase since 2018, but there is still a long way to go before research materials are fully freely available.
The issue is relevant all over the world. Despite pressure from researchers and other stakeholders, the search for a solution is slow and complicated, and scientific ethics, economic interests and deep-rooted international practice clash.
The biggest obstacle, as in many places, is money.
Marko Piirsoo, head of the strategic analysis department at ETAg, pointed out that making all research conducted in Estonia open access would cost six million euros annually. The research system does not have such funds, and the total annual funding is only ten million euros.
Due to financial and structural constraints, Estonia has not joined the international initiative “Plan S”, which aims to make publicly funded research immediately accessible to all. While Piirsoo supports the idea in principle, he also noted that it would require a significant amount of funding.
The average processing cost (APC) of a scientific article is around 4,000 euros, but for top-tier scientific journals such as Nature, it can exceed 10,000 euros. Even if funding were found, Estonia cannot solve the accessibility problem alone. Scientific work is inherently international, and a large number of Estonian scientists work together with partners from other countries. In 2023, out of 3,487 scientific articles published in Estonia, 2,329 were collaborations with researchers from other countries. Piirsoo explained that introducing restrictions would mean a decrease in competitiveness for Estonians. He added that
it is almost impossible to get, for example, US scientists to publish an open access article
unless the funder requires it.
Although Estonia does not have a national policy for the transition to open access to scientific articles, research institutions are not sitting idly by. Academic libraries are at the forefront of the effort to negotiate better terms with publishers. Elena Sipria-Mironov, project manager at the University of Tartu Library, said that Estonian libraries do not negotiate alone, but coordinate their activities within consortia. This helps a small country like Estonia to achieve better publishing terms and keep prices at a reasonable level.
The University of Tartu does not have a single fund to cover APCs, and researchers cover publication costs from the funds of relevant projects. However, libraries and international networks can provide some support, for example, Estonia’s participation in the Electronic Information Network of Libraries (EIFL) allows for a 50% discount on APCs from certain publishers.
At the same time, subscriptions to large publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley are very expensive. The Elsevier scientific database costs the University of Tartu almost half a million euros per year. The University of Tartu is considering the possibility of establishing a central fund, which has already proven itself at the University of Helsinki. There, researchers can apply for funding to pay for their publications, provided that they first choose open access publishers or those that offer better conditions.
In addition to finding favorable conditions and long-term planning,
libraries also offer local infrastructure and assistance to researchers.
Ultimately, the choice of where to publish their research lies with the scientist, who must evaluate the reputation, readership and costs of a particular scientific journal. Eva Piirimäe, professor of political theory at the University of Tartu, believes that open access resources are extremely important. At the same time, the professor points out that diverting a lot of taxpayers’ money for this purpose may not be justified.
Open access to research is also important for semiotics researcher Mari-Liis Madisson, especially when thinking about researchers who do not have access to university-subscribed databases. However, she also emphasizes that the impact and prestige of journals should be assessed – the articles published in them are carefully reviewed and edited, which is very important for the quality of the research.
Accessibility also depends on the field. The most important scientific journals in semiotics, Sign System Studies and Semiotica, are freely available. Both scientists also emphasize that making research a free resource is only part of true accessibility. They also need to be told to the public.
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