Kim Carr, Liberating the voices of science, The Australian, January 16, 2008. Senator Carr is Australia's Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. (Thanks to Colin Steele.) Excerpt:
...The [Australian] Government looks to its science and research agencies to provide cutting-edge scientific research from which policy can be formulated....
In this context, it is essential to communicate new ideas and to infuse public debate with the best research and new knowledge.
Public debate must be as well informed as possible....
I support and commend this policy position [that "a national research agency...should discharge its public role by being readily and rapidly available to provide information on the most up-to-date science and technology and its implications for the nation"], and believe we can do better....
The Rudd Government is committed to creating a charter (akin to that of the ABC) for public research agencies, including the CSIRO, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
These charters will identify and guarantee the responsibilities and obligations of each organisation. They will enshrine not only the right, but the obligation, of scientists and other researchers to participate in public research debates [without censorship or political interference].
As an initial step, I will be consulting with public research agencies on developing a policy addressing these issues.
The principles guiding such a policy will include: ...
- Support for the open communication, dissemination of information and debate about the results of scientific, technical and social research....
Comment. Senator Carr is responding to the problem of political interference with science, not the problem of price barriers to publicly funded research. But the remedy may address both problems, showing that they are connected. We saw a similar development in the US in June 2006 when Sen. John McCain introduced an amendment in the Senate to ensure "the open exchange of data and results of research by Federal agency scientists" as a response to the political interference with science by the Bush administration. (Several Australian funding agencies already have OA policies to eliminate price barriers to publicly funded research.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/16/2008 10:06:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
