Francis Muguet, who chairs the WSIS Working Group on Scientific Information, has posted a comment on today's session of oral evidence in the UK inquiry. Excerpt: "We are extremely disappointed with this inquiry that seemed to start on excellent premises. One can clearly see that the oral testimony schedule is completely unbalanced in favor of publishers. There are fours panels for publishers vs one panel for Libraries and only one for Academics ( not even completely, since one of the witnesses is not a scientist ) ! It is most incredible that scientists are given such a disadvantaged treatment ( Note that the The Royal Society testified as a publisher...and it shows...). Among the academics, not one eminent British figure of the Open Access movement ( such as Dr. Harnad from the University of Southampton) is called to speak on the floor....No foreign people, not even one soul from developing countries, have been invited as witnesses. How the UK International Development Policy in relationship to Science can be seriously considered without discussing on the floor the very recent WSIS conclusions ? The irony is that Committee' secretary replied to us that "Your written evidence was very thorough and, because of this, the Committee decided that it did not need any further information from you." Is this a joke ? ...The media and psychological impact is quite different. The UK parliament committee is not making every effort to implement the WSIS recommendations."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/21/2004 03:50:00 PM.
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.
