SciDev.Net recently reported on an action plan drawn up by the coalition of 132 developing countries known as 'G77 and China' that "stresses the need for developing countries to build scientific capacity and close the technological gap between them and industrialised nations." (See G77 developing countries pledge to promote science.) The article then says, "achieving this will depend in part on increased scientific cooperation between developing countries, including setting up networks of researchers and institutions, and a G77 consortium on science and technology." If information is key to science development, the bedrock of increased scientific cooperation is sharing information. What better way to share such information than to establish institutional open access archives?...All major higher educational and research institutions in the South should set up such archives and place the full text of all the research papers written by their own scientists and students. Papers made available through open access archives can be read and cited by more people than those that are available only through subscriptions to journals. Not only would open access increase the visibility of scientists from the South, but it would also enable them to access relevant information at a low cost....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/05/2005 08:25:00 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.
