All -
This is about the forthcoming parliamentary discussions of
"Scientific Information in the Digital Age: Access, Dissemination and
Preservation".
Further to Prof Jeffery's posting <Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:07:20 -0000>
I have drafted a letter to my MP and to my MEP.
Copy of my draft letter below the fold.
I would be v grateful if you could read my letter for errors and
omissions, and send corrections to me off list (or post them here).
And if you have 2 minutes to spare, perhaps you could send something
like this to your own deputé/ member of parliament.
Thank you
N. Miradon
nmiradon_at_yahoo.fr
+ + +
Dear Member of Parliament/Member of the European Parliament
I understand that Parliament has received a Communication from the
European Commission "On Scientific Information in the Digital Age:
Access, Dissemination and Preservation". There is an accompanying
"Staff Working Paper" - details in footnotes [1] and [2] below.
The reason for this letter is to ask you to pursue some questions
which are relevant to "Access, Dissemination and Preservation" of
scientific information; but which the Commission papers do not seem
to mention.
I am a retired research scientist. I have always found that the
European Research programmes are well structured at the start, but
that it is difficult to find the results at the end. The problem
is that the scientific information that is produced by each EU
research project is dispersed through publications in a multitude of
books, journals, pamphlets and Commission and other web pages.
So I would like to ask why all published results from EU-supported
research projects cannot be grouped together and made available via
one well-organised EU web page or 'portal'.
I think that it is reasonable to ask the Commission to do this. The
three necessary constituents of a 'portal' are -
(i) the published research documents,
(ii) a web site,
(iii) a data standard for classifying and linking the documents.
The European Commission already possesses (i) and (ii) and (iii);
(i) The Commission's "Seventh Framework Programme Grant Agreement"
already requires that every research contract funded under the
Seventh Framework Programme should send to the Commission an
electronic copy of every publication produced, and that the
Commission shall, with appropriate safeguards, be authorised to
publish every document sent to it - see footnote [3].
(ii) The Commission already has numerous web pages from earlier
Framework Programmes, each showing the reports of its particular
research projects - some examples are listed in [4].
(iii) The Commission has already developed a "Common European Research
Information Format". The Commission has also sent it to the
member states as a formal recommendation - see [5].
However the Commission has not yet managed to join up (i) + (ii) + (iii)
So, for the results of EU research projects, "Access, Dissemination
and Preservation" are substandard. I have sketched some of the
current rather untidy situation in footnote [4].
It is of course understandable that a large bureaucracy should
sometimes fail to join up the various elements under its control.
It is also understandable that bureaucracies should not draw
attention to internal problems in their published Papers.
However I trust that you and your colleagues will investigate the
matter when you discuss "On Scientific Information in the Digital
Age: Access, Dissemination and Preservation".
It should not be too difficult or expensive for the Commission to
ensure that the publications that are sent to the Commission, are made
available on the websites that the Commission runs, using the
information format which the Commission itself recommends.
If this is done, then all published documents from the research that
is funded in the Seventh Framework Programme will become available
over the web. Industry, research workers and citizens will all
benefit - and they should be grateful to the Commission and to you.
Yours sincerely
N. Miradon
+ + +
Footnotes
1. "Communication from the Commission to the European
Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social
Committee on scientific information in the digital age:
access, dissemination and preservation {SEC(2007)181}" /*
COM/2007/0056 final */
in English, French and German at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0056:FIN:EN:PDF
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0056:FIN:FR:PDF
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0056:FIN:DE:PDF
2. "Commission staff working document - Document accompanying
the Communication from the Commission to the European
Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social
Committee on scientific information in the digital age:
access, dissemination and preservation {COM(2007) 56 final}"
/* SEC/2007/0181 final */
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/scientific_information/swp_en.pdf"
3. "FP7 Grant Agreement - Annex II General Conditions
Version 20.12.06 ISC clean 3."
ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp7/docs/annex2_general_conditions_20061222_en.pdf
Article II.30 (Dissemination) says -
"... Furthermore, an electronic copy of the published version or
the final manuscript accepted for publication shall also be
provided to the Commission at the same time for the purpose set
out in Article II.12(2) if this does not infringe any rights of
third parties."
And Article II.12. (Information and communication) says -
"... 2. The Commission shall be authorised to publish, in
whatever form and on or by whatever medium, the following
information: ... ^Ö the details/references and the abstracts of
scientific publications relating to foreground and, where
provided pursuant to Article II.30, the published version or the
final manuscript accepted for publication; ..."
4. The "Fifth framework programme of the European Community
for research, technological development and demonstration
activities (1998 - 2002)" was divided into thematic programmes and
horizontal programmes (TP and HP).
Programmes TP and HP were divided into sub programmes, and each
sub programme was further divided into key actions (KA).
Here are the starter web pages of TP1
TP 1 Quality of life and management of living resources
TP 1, KA 1:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/TP 1, KA
.1/index_number_en.htm
TP 1, KA 2: ?
TP 1, KA 3:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/cell-factory/volume1/area_en.html
TP 1, KA 4:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/TP 1, KA
.4/TP 1, KA .4_reports_en.html
TP 1, KA 5:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/TP 1, KA
.5/en/toc-area.html
TP 1, KA 6:
http://ec.europa.eu//research/quality-of-life/TP 1, KA
.6/TP 1, KA .6.html
TP 1, KA 7:
http://ec.europa.eu//research/quality-of-life/pdf/generic-rtd.pdf
Note that each of these pages has a different design, and that none of
them has a search engine.
If you are looking for particular information, you may also need to
look through the rest of the structure (web pages not listed here)
1 Thematic programmes
TP 2 User friendly information society
TP 3 Competitive and sustainable growth
TP 4 Energy, environment and sustainable development
2 Horizontal programmes
HP 1 Confirming the international role of community research
HP 2 Promotion of innovation and encouragement of participation of SMEs
HP 3 Improving human research potential and the socio-economic
knowledge base
5. CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) was
developed with the support of the EC (European Commission) in
two major phases: 1987-1990 and 1997-1999. It is an European
Union Recommendation to member states.
http://www.eurocris.org:8080/lenya/euroCRIS/live/index.html
/ends
Received on Sat Mar 24 2007 - 11:35:44 GMT