Paula Le Dieu, Science Commons, a podcast lecture delivered at the O'Reilly European Open Source Convention (Amsterdam, October 17-20, 2005). Paula Le Dieu is the Director of Creative Commons International. (Thanks to Windley.) From the description:
The scientific traditions of collaboration, transparency and sharing can be at odds with the constraints of publishers, patents and copy protection. Science Commons is a new project of the Creative Commons with a mission to facilitate the growth of an openly accessible commons for scientific knowledge. In this talk, Paula Le Dieu maps out some of the alternative models for journal publishing, licensing and data sharing which can help promote the flow of scientific results and innovation.
Le Dieu highlights research on the well known p53 tumor suppressor gene to illustrate how scientific progress can be encumbered by limited access to published results. Meta analysis of the tens of thousands of articles written on p53 reveals an intriguing web of connections between different pathways and diseases, but this approach is hindered by the fact that only a quarter of published research papers are freely accessible in full text on line.
Limits stem partly from a conflict between the scientists’ interest in sharing knowledge and publishers’ interest in protecting copyright. The shift toward electronic publishing also means more libraries acquire journals on a rental basis rather than outright purchase so that all access is lost if the subscription ends.
Since there is no way of knowing in advance where new insights may lie, it’s in the interest of humanity to ensure the widest possible access to the body of scientific knowledge. To that end, Science Commons is promoting new publishing models. They are also trying to rationalize the language of technology transfer agreements to help scientists avoid inadvertently signing away rights. Finally, the group is investigating alternatives to the ’publish or perish’ mode of building scientific reputation. Open access publication and diverse impact measurements can help reduce the inequities of citation ranking.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/04/2006 10:37:00 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.
