Provosts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and University of Wisconsin at Madison take a stand on Open Access.
Read more: at Inside Higher Ed
One of the world’s largest research charities, the Wellcome Trust, is to support efforts by scientists to make their work freely available for all.
By changing its policies to promote open access to the scientific research its plans that 100 per cent of its funded research will eventually be made freely available to the public.
Part of this drive will be the publication of eLife, an open access journal that will publish research in biomedical and life sciences. The first issue of eLife will published later this year with the backing of the Wellcome Trust, the US-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Germany’s Max Planck Society.
Go the the Wellcome Trust blog
Read the news on the April Knowledge Speak website
Read the November 2011 announcement
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In this podcast, PSION speaks with Dr Mike Taylor. Dr Taylor is a palaeontologist and open access champion. We discuss key issues driving the open access movement e.g. increasing access to work, measuring impact and copyright.
Links to topics discussed in the podcast:
1. Dr Taylor’s article in the Times Higher Education
2. Dr Taylor’s blog http://svpow.com/
3. The Cost Of Knowledge
4. Creative Commons Copyright and Licenses
5. Metrics:
Two years after opening its vast storehouse of data to the public, the World Bank is consolidating more than 2,000 books, articles, reports and research papers in a search-engine friendly Open Knowledge Repository, and allowing the public to distribute, reuse and build upon much of its work—including commercially.
The repository, launched today, is a one-stop-shop for most of the Bank’s research outputs and knowledge products, providing free and unrestricted access to students, libraries, government officials and anyone interested in the Bank’s knowledge. Additional material, including foreign language editions and links to datasets, will be added in the coming year.
And, in a bid to promote knowledge-sharing around the world, the Bank has become the first major international organization to require open access under copyright licensing from Creative Commons—a non-profit organization whose copyright licenses are designed to accommodate the expanded access to information afforded by the Internet.
The repository and Creative Commons licenses are part of a new open access policy that takes effect on July 1 and will be phased in over the next year. The policy formalizes the Bank’s practice of making research outputs and knowledge products freely available online, but now much of that content can be shared and reused freely, if the Bank is credited for the original work.
In addition, the author versions of articles published by commercial publishers and currently available only to journal subscribers will be made freely available via the public repository after embargo periods elapse, though their reuse will be more restricted than Bank-published material. Articles from 2007-2010 that appeared in the World Bank Research Observer and World Bank Economic Review (published by Oxford University Press), for example, are now in the repository.
“Knowledge is power.” World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said. “Making our knowledge widely and readily available will empower others to come up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Our new Open Access policy is the natural evolution for a World Bank that is opening up more and more.”
“I think it’s an important and extremely valuable signal,” said Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor and a founder of Creative Commons, of the Bank’s open access policy. “The objective of Creative Commons is simply to make it easier for people to signal the freedoms they intend their work to carry, and that seems consistent with the model the World Bank is trying to do. We’re happy they are taking the lead and making that a part of their mission.”
Peter Suber, director of the Harvard Open Access Project, said the Bank’s new policy is “pioneering” in its adoption of Creative Commons licenses. “I’m delighted to see a major institution like the World Bank push the boundaries and not just make their work free of charge, but also free for use and reuse.”
Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access book cover
This publication will serve the needs of OA policy development at the government, institutional and funding agency level. The overall objective of the Policy Guidelines is to promote Open Access in Member States by facilitating understanding of all relevant issues related to Open Access.
The guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, but are suggestive to facilitate knowledge-based decision-making to adopt OA policies and strengthen national research systems.
Written by Dr. Alma Swan, an eminent expert in the field of Open Access, the draft went through an open consultation and peer review at the Open Access Community in the WSIS Knowledge Communities.
The Policy Guidelines can be used by individuals as a basic text on Open Access and related policies. The publication will be useful to both the beginners as well as experienced in the world of Open Access, and will assist the decision-makers, administrators and research managers to focus on OA policy development.
