Donald MacLeod, Government warned over 'lack of science policy', Guardian, January 17, 2005. Excerpt: 'The annual report from the Commons science and technology committee [chaired by Ian Gibson] said members had made a point of examining areas of policy they suspected were deficient....Dr Gibson and his colleagues have also clashed with the government over open access publishing of scientific journals, this time with less success. Although their report, Free for all? won considerable support for the idea of an "author-pays" model which would then give universities in the UK - and the developing world - free access to papers, ministers have declined to try it out. "We found that the government was completely unprepared for such a change. Indeed, in oral evidence government officials showed themselves to be only barely aware of the issues surrounding the way that scientific research papers are published," said the committee's annual report. Putting a brave face on the continuing dispute, the report said that the committee's inquiry had improved the situation. "The director general of the research councils told us that 'the ball is actually rolling. We have had numerous discussions. And, as I say, being quite frank, I think the interest of this committee has stimulated that considerably'. "We hope that the government will use the opportunity of our second report on scientific publications to formulate a response that addresses the policy deficiency that we have identified," added the annual report.' (PS: It's hard to believe that journalists are still writing about this report as if its primary recommendation were OA journals rather than OA archiving.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/17/2005 02:37:00 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.
