MELIBEA is a directory and an estimator of institutional open-access (OA) policies regarding scientific and academic outputs. As a directory, it describes the existing policies. As a estimator, it subjects them to qualitative and quantitative analyses based on fulfilment of a set of indicators that reflect the statments of an institutional policy.

Based on the values assigned to a set of indicators, weighted according to their importance, the estimator indicates a score and a percentage of fulfilment for each policy analyzed. The sum of weighted values of each indicator is converted to a percentage scale to give what we have called the “estimated open-access percentage”, calculated as explained in the Methodology section.

The types of institution analyzed include academic and research institutions, and funders.

MELIBEA has three main objectives:

• 1. To establish indicators that reveal the strong and weak points of institutional OA polices.
• 2. To propose a methodology to guide institutions when they are drawing up an institutional OA policy.
• 3. To offer a tool for comparing the contents of policies between institutions.

The idea of applying a sequence of questions reflecting the qualities of a clear and precise institutional OA policy was inspired by a Peter Suber's article published in his monthly bulletin for February 2009 (“Open access policy options for funding agencies and universities” http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/02-02-09.htm).

Methodology

The units of analysis are the documents expressing the institutional open-access policy of academic and research institutions, and funders.

These documents are evaluated according to some questions that cover descriptive aspects (details of the institution, the document, etc.) and aspects of policy content (requirement or recommendation, document type, deposit deadlines, barriers, scope, embargo periods, copyright reservation, etc.). Nine of those questions were assigned a maximum score of two points each. The value of each one varies according to the terms in which the policy is worded or expressed. These values are given a weighting factor and they are added to obtain the weighted value (P):

Weighted value for academic research institutions (Pa)= A4*0.4+A8*0.10+A14*0.05+A15*0.10+A16*0.05+A17*0.1+A18*0.10+A19*0.10

Weighted value for funders (Pf)= F4*0.4+F8*0.1+F9*0.10+F10*0.05+F16*0.05+F17*0.1+F18*0.05+F19*0.1+F20*0.05

Finally, what we have called the “estimated open-access percentage” (OA%) is calculated. For comparative purposes, this percentage is calculated by converting the weighted value to a scale of 0 to 100 bearing in mind the minimum and maximum values that can be obtained according to the proposed model:

Estimated OA percentage (OA%)=100*(P-Pmin)/Pmax-Pmin

Bearing in mind this, the OA% is calculated as:

Funders % OA= 100*(Pf-Pmin)/Pmax-Pmin)

Academic/research instituctions % OA= 100*(Pa-Pmin)/(Pmax-Pmin)