"An open-access philosophy is critical to the system's success"
From Peter Suber's Open Access News
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2005_10_16_fosblogarchive.html#a112964012420167237
Nurturing OA in Canada, from the top
Arthur Carty, "A global information system needs a culture of sharing."
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2005/november/opinion_01.html
University Affairs, November 2005.
Carty is the Canadian National Science Advisor.
(Thanks to BNA Internet Law News.)
Excerpt:
So, what is Canada's vision for a 21st-century global system for
disseminating and communicating research data? Above all, our goal
must be to maximize the impact of research for societies everywhere,
not just the developed world. People in developing nations must be
able to access and contribute to the vitality of the global research
information and communications system. An open-access philosophy is
critical to the system's success: if research findings and knowledge
are to be built upon and used by other scientists, then this knowledge
must be widely available on the web, not just stored in published
journals that are often expensive and not universally available.
From a Canadian perspective, a 21st century research communications
system would share certain attributes. It would: [1] take
full advantage of the enormous potential of new information
and communication technologies; [2] be capable of handling an
unprecedented flow of information in a wide variety of formats; [3]
bring Canadian research knowledge to the world and bring the world's
research knowledge to Canada; [4] be accessible by all Canadians,
in all sectors, ensuring that public investment in scientific
research leads to wealth creation and improvements in social and
cultural well-being. With this type of system a researcher could
access, from any corner of the globe, the full texts of relevant
journal articles; a comprehensive set of monographs and theses;
research data sets that underlie published outcomes; research
reports and non-peer-reviewed research materials from both academia
and government; and the electronic tools necessary to manage this
volume of material. Creating a system with these attributes is no
longer just a question of developing appropriate technologies; for
the most part these already exist. Rather, it's a matter of building,
integrating and improving the technical infrastructure, operational
standards, research support systems, regulations and institutional
roles and responsibilities. It's also a matter of nurturing a
culture of open access and sharing, beyond what researchers have
ever embraced. Canada is fortunate to have a number of key building
blocks in place to facilitate the development of such a system. These
include a network of institutional repositories at 26 university
research libraries....Building an effective global information system
consists both of this infrastructure and perhaps more importantly
a culture of open access and sharing. This is harder to build than
the nuts and bolts of the system because it requires a new mindset
among researchers, administrators, governments and in some cases
companies -- everyone involved in the creation and dissemination of
knowledge....However, filling archives, though necessary, will not be
able to change the mindset of people in the research enterprise. We
have to find ways to motivate researchers in all countries to
preserve and exchange their research data, to publish their findings
in open access journals and to deposit their published articles in
institutional repositories....Institutions, too, need to know that
their investments in expanding and improving the quality of their data
archives and open-access repositories are recognized as measurable
scientific outputs. Some of these issues will be broached at the World
Information Summit taking place this month in Turin, Italy. Canada has
to articulate a vision to meet the challenges outlined above. Unless
we act, the unprecedented volume of research information will become
too difficult to manage, and highly valuable research data will be
lost, along with the public investment in our future.
Permanent link to this post Posted by Peter Suber at 10/18/2005
08:45:00 AM.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2005_10_16_fosblogarchive.html#a112964012420167237
Received on Tue Oct 18 2005 - 17:00:43 BST