Arunachalam on the Bangalore Policy Statement

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:42:13 +0000

[Forwarding from Subbiah Arunachalam]]

Friends:

As already reported, delegates from India, China,
Brazil, South Africa, and Ethiopia attended an
OSI-funded workshop in Bangalore, November 2/3 2006,
to discuss electronic publishing of scholarly
publications and open access (OA). Also present at the
workshop were participants from Germany, Japan, UK and
USA. After presentations from experts and OA
practitioners, a draft National OA Policy for
Developing Countries was considered, based on earlier
policy documents, and adapted to meet developing
country needs. Suggestions from participants were
tabled and the document revised taking these into
account. A further period for consultation has led to
the acceptance of the attached policy statement by
those present.

The policy statement provides a clear way forward to
achieving free access to publicly-funded research
publications that is essential for scientific progress
in all countries. It can be adopted and used by
national governments, their funding organisations,
research institutes and universities to accelerate the
free exchange of research findings and reap optimum
benefit from academic investment.

The workshop website, with copies of all
presentations, a list of participants and workshop
photographs can be viewed at
http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/OAworkshop2006/.

The workshop was organised and supported by the Indian
Institute of Science, the Indian Academy of Science
and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation.

Subbiah Arunachalam
Distinguished Fellow
M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
CHENNAI 600 113, India

---
Workshop on Electronic Publishing and Open Access
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2-3 November
2006
Supported by the Open Society Institute
http://www.soros.org/openaccess
The Bangalore workshop was convened to bring together
policy makers and research scientists from major
developing countries to agree a path forward towards
adopting full Open Access to publicly-funded research
publications. The importance of access to the world's
research information for the development of a strong
economy and a vibrant research capability is widely
acknowledged, yet financial barriers limit access by
developing countries to the research information they
need. Equally, the unique research carried out in
countries representing 80% of the world's population
is largely 'invisible' to international science
because of economic or other constraints. The
resolution of many of the world's problems, such as
emerging infectious diseases, environmental disasters,
HIV/AIDS or climate change, cannot be achieved without
incorporation of the research from developing
countries into the global knowledge pool.
Open Access to the world's publicly funded research
literature provides equal opportunities for the
communication of all research information, eliminating
financial barriers. Furthermore, articles made
available electronically on an open access basis have
been shown to be cited1 on average 50% more often than
non-open access articles from the same journal, thus
ensuring the greatest possible benefit both to the
authors, to the investment of funding agencies and to
scientific progress. The benefits to authors, readers
and their organisations is now increasingly recognised
worldwide and at November 4th 2006, 761 repositories
had already been registered in the Registry of Open
Access Repositories, and the Open Archives
Initiative's OAIster search engine2 could search over
9,000,000 records in interoperable Open Access
repositories.
Building on the Budapest Open Access Initiative
recommendations3, and past Declarations of commitments
to the strategy of Open Access4, particularly the
Salvador International Declaration on Open Access for
Developing Countries5, and recognising the benefits
that Open Access will bring to the strengthening of
science, participants to the Workshop agreed the
following model National Open Access Policy for
Developing Countries.
-------------------------------------------------------
A National Open Access Policy for Developing Countries
The [country-name] Government/Government Department
expects the authors of papers reporting
publicly-funded research to maximise the
accessibility, usage and applications of their
findings. To this end:
As a condition for research funding, the
[country-name] Government:
(1) requires electronic copies of any research papers
that have been accepted for publication in a
peer-reviewed journal, and are supported in whole or
in part by Government funding, to be deposited in an
institutional digital repository [IR] immediately upon
acceptance for publication;
  (2) encourages Government Grant Holders to provide
Open Access to their deposited papers immediately upon
deposit;
  (3) encourages Government Grant Holders to publish in
a suitable Open Access Journal where one exists.
What are the benefits to scientific research, research
institutes, universities, authors and readers?
What are the benefits of Open Access to [country-name]?
First, [country-name's] research will be more
accessible to global researchers, hence better known
and more widely used and cited. The prestige of
[country-name] researchers will increase
significantly.
Second, all [country-name] research
will be open to all [country-name] entrepreneurs and
the general public with Internet access. This will be
beneficial both commercially and culturally.
Third, access, usage and citation data on this research will
increasingly become available for analysis to help
shape researchers', institutions' and nations'
strategies and policies.
What are the benefits of Open Access to researchers?
As authors, researchers benefit because their research
papers are given a much wider dissemination and can be
read without restriction by anyone with Internet
access. This increases the impact of their research.
Indeed, evidence is accumulating to show that open
access articles are cited 25-250% more than non-open
access articles from the same journal and year1. As
readers, researchers benefit because they will
increasingly be able to access and use the full text
of all the research published in their area, not just
the research available to them via the subscriptions
their institution can afford. This is particularly
important where neighbouring countries share common
problems and need to collaborate in their research
effort.
What should be done to implement the policy (answers
to Frequently Asked Questions)?
What should be deposited when I have a paper ready for
publication?
The final manuscript of the author's research paper
should be deposited in the author's Institutional
Repository. This is the author's own final draft, as
accepted for journal publication, including all
modifications resulting from the peer-review process.
(In addition, depositing pre-peer-review drafts,
'preprints', is welcome, if the author desires early
priority and peer feedback, but this is just an option
available to authors and not a requirement. In some
cases publishers may permit their own published
version, either in SGML/XML or PDF, to be deposited as
well.)
When should papers be deposited?
An electronic version of the author's final manuscript
resulting from research supported, in whole or in
part, by Government funding should be deposited
immediately upon acceptance for publication.
What kind of papers should I deposit?
The policy applies to peer-reviewed, original
(primary) research publications and reviews that have
been supported, in whole or in part, by Government
funding. The policy does not apply to book chapters,
editorials, or book reviews.
Will authors still be able to publish in a journal of
their choice?
Authors will continue to decide in which journal to
publish their research papers. They will only have to
ensure that a copy of the final, peer-reviewed paper
is deposited in their institutional repository
immediately upon acceptance for publication.
What is an open access journal?
An open access journal makes articles it publishes
freely accessible online6. Some open access journals
cover their costs by charging the author's institution
or funder for publication. The Government may cover
such open access publication costs where funds are
available and needed. Many journals absorb publication
costs in other ways and make no charge.
How can I find out whether my journal has a policy
compliant with immediately providing access as Open
Access?
You should consult the individual journal's policy
which is given at:
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php or at
http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html
Do I need to deposit my paper if the journal
publishing my research already provides immediate open
access to my articles?
Deposit is not required but is still recommended even
if a manuscript has been accepted by an open access
journal. Your institution will still wish to have your
work deposited in its repository to enable it to
maintain and make known a compete record of
institutional research output.
Links and References
1.    Ten-Year Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the
growth of Open Access and How it Increases Research
Citation Impact. IEEE Engineering Bulletin, Vol.28
N.4, December 2005.
http://sites.computer.org/debull/A05dec/hajjem.pdf
       http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11688/
2.    Open Archives Initiative search engine (OAIster)
http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
3.    BOAI (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/)
4.      List of OA Resources from Workshop web site
http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/OAworkshop2006/
5.      Salvador Declaration
http://www.icml9.org/meetings/openaccess/public/documents/declaration.htm
6.      Directory of Open Access Journals
http://www.doaj.org
List of Participants
NAME ORGANISATION
Sunil Abraham   Mahiti, Bangalore, India
Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, M S Swaminathan Research
Foundation, Chennai, India
Prof. N Balakrishnan, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. S Chandrasekharan, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Dr Wu Changbai  NSFC, Beijing, China
Dr Devika P Madalli, Indian Statistical Institute,
Bangalore, India
Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar, Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, India
Prof. M Giridhar, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Dr Eve Gray, Consultant & OSI Fellow, South Africa
Prof. Zu Guang'an, Executive Director, Dept of
Publications, NSFC,
                               Beijing, China
Subbiah Gunasekaran, CECRI, Karaikudi, India
Francis Jayakanth, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. E D Jemmis, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. Niranjan V Joshi, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Amit Kapoor, Topaz and Mindspring, USA
Helen King, Shuttleworth Foundation, South Africa and
UK
Barbara Kirsop, Electronic Publishing Trust for
Development, UK
Dr S Krishnan, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune,
India
Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore,
India
Filbert Minjh, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,
India
Prof. M R N Murthy, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Madhan Muthu, NIT, Rourkela, India
Dr Takao Namiki, Dept of Mathematics, Hokkaido
University, Japan
Prof. Achim Osswald, Cologne University of Applied
Sciences, Cologne, Germany
Dr Abel Packer, SciELO/ PAHO/ BIREME, Sao Paulo,
Brazil
Anand Parthasarathy, Consulting Editor, The Hindu
Prof. J. Pashupathy, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. A R D Prasad, DRTC-ISI, Bangalore, India
Prof. S K Rangarajan, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Dr Mesfin Redi, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Dr D K Sahu, MedKnow Publications, Mumbai, India
Phet Sayo, IDRC, New Delhi, India
Dr Pippa  Smart, Publishing Initiatives, INASP,
Oxford, UK
Dr Alma Swan, Key Perspectives, UK
Ms Susan Veldsman, eIFL, South Africa
Dr S Venkadesan Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Prof. Lu Wenru, Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences, Beijing, China
Ms. Wan Xiaoxian, Institute of Computing Technology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
*Liu Xiwen, Library of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China
*sent his paper but was unable to attend the workshop
Ms. Liu Ying, NSFC, Beijing, China
The Bangalore workshop was convened by the Indian
Institute of Science, the Indian Academy of Science
and the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. It was
Received on Wed Nov 22 2006 - 16:34:58 GMT

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