Australia is poised to take a lead in the move to free up the results of publicly-funded research, say international experts.
The comments follow an expression of support by Federal Science Minister Kim Carr for making Government-funded research freely available on the internet under a creative commons licence - one of the recommendations in the recently-released Cutler Report on innovation....
Senator Carr told the Open Access and Research Conference in Brisbane this week by video link[,]..."The Government is weighing these recommendations and will respond to them in an innovation policy white paper."
UK open access expert Dr Alma Swan is among a number of conference participants who welcome the minister's comments....Dr Swan says less than 20 per cent of publicly-funded research is freely available....
Dr Swan adds that the public is also increasingly wanting direct access to scientific research....She gives the example of US patient advocate, Sharon Terry, who is the mother of two sons with an extremely rare genetic disease. "Her family doctor knew nothing about it and couldn't help her," Dr Swan said. Ms Terry was driven to find out what she could to get some kind of treatment and stimulate research to help her sons. But she found research referred to on the internet was inaccessible....Dr Swan says Ms Terry formed Genetic Alliance and campaigned for open access to research....
John Wilbanks, executive director of the US-based Science Commons project of Creative Commons describes the Cutler report proposals as "unprecedented and visionary...If implemented it really gives Australia the chance to be first in the world," he said....
Dutch open access researcher Frederika Welle Donker says a further constraint on open access to publicly-funded research comes from Government researchers trying to commercialise their research. But Senator Carr says this is a "failed" strategy....
"To quote the OECD: 'commercialisation requires secrecy in the interests of appropriating the benefits of knowledge, whereas universities may play a stronger role in the economy by diffusing and divulging results'."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/25/2008 11:38:00 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.
