On 15 fev 2008 it will be just a year since the European Commission's
conference on "Scientific Publishing in the European Research Area".
I would like to suggest an Anniversary Letter to the European Commissioners
Mme Reading and M. Potocnik.
The letter should come from one address, but it would be better if there
were more than one signature. Is there any way which this Forum could host
such an effort? First draft pasted in below. References [1] - [6] included
just for completeness - not appropriate in the final letter.
Your corrections and suggestions welcomed
N Miradon
DRAFT
Mme Viviane Reding Ph. D.
Commissioner for Information Society and Media
European Commission
B-1049 Bruxelles
Belgique
M. Janez Potocnik Ph.D.
Commissioner for Science and Research
European Commission
B-1049 Bruxelles
Belgique
Dear Mme Reding, Dear M. Potocnik,
It is just one year since your conference on "Scientific Publishing in the
European Research Area - Access, Dissemination, and Preservation in the
Digital Age". (15-16 February 2007)[1]
We have followed the various developments in scientific publishing since
that conference. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and
your staff for the "Communication on Scientific information in the digital
age" [2], for the public consultation on the "Study on the economic and
technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe" [3],
and for the research projects in this domain which you support, such as
DRIVER [4].
We note with particular interest that your colleagues in the European
Research Council have recently decided that all peer-reviewed publications
from the research projects which they fund should be "deposited on
publication into an appropriate research repository ... and subsequently
made Open Access within 6 months of publication."[5]
This seems to us an excellent policy option for scientific publishing under
FP7 and in the European Research Area. It would thus achieve the original
objectives of last year's conference [6]
We would therefore like to ask you - is there any reason why the same
requirement should not henceforth be included in all future FP7 grant
agreements?