Hélio Kuramoto of IBICT has helped to formulate a Proposed Law (introduced
by Rodrigo Rollemberg, Member of Brazil's House of Representatives)
that would require all Brazil's public institutions of higher education
and research units to create OA institutional repositories and
self-archive all their technical-scientific output therein.
There is a petition in support of this Green OA Mandate. I urge all in favor
of OA in Brazil (and worldwide) to sign:
http://www.petitiononline.com/PL1120/petition.html
Below is an English translation of the petition. Bravo to Helio and
Rodrigo for this timely and welcome step, setting an excellent
example for all.
Stevan Harnad
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To: The Brazilian Scientific Community
On May 23 of 2007, Rodrigo Rollemberg, Member of Brazil's House of
Representatives, introduced Proposed Law nº 1120/2007 concerning
the dissemination of Brazil's technical-scientific output.
This is a pioneering initiative for this country and indeed for all
of Latin America. Brazil can become the first Latin American country
to establish a legal mandate for the deposit and distribution of
Brazil's technical-scientific output. This Proposed Law represents
a decisive and courageous step toward providing open access to
Brazilian scientific research. If approved, the Law will contribute to
eliminating access barriers to scientific information worldwide. In
addition to being beneficial to the national economy, the Law will
allow greater transparency in Brazil's investment in its scientific
research, generating quantitative metrics to guide the planning and
support of science and technology.
The first article proposes that all Brazil's public institutions
of higher education, as well as all research units, should be
required to establish institutional repositories in which all the
technical-scientific output of their academic and researcher staff
must be deposited. The intention is to ensure that this content will
be made openly accessible on the Web.
The article proposes creating a High Level Committee co-ordinated
by IBICT to design and direct whatever actions need to be taken
to provide open access to scientific research. This Committee will
have the mandate to discuss and formulate a National Policy of Open
Access to Scientific Research Output.
It is incumbent on all members of the scientific community to promote
open access in Brazil by fighting for the approval of Law nº 1120/2007
by the National Congress.
We hereby request all those who support the Proposed Law to sign
this petition.
Received on Sun Jun 03 2007 - 12:57:08 BST