The correct URL for Heather's important reference to Rolf Neth is: http://groups.undp.org/read/messages?id=98584
It contains further interesting links. Best, Jean-Claude Guédon On Sun October 24 2004 04:18 pm, Heather Morrison wrote: > greetings - a few thoughts on this thread: > > Is an opinion survey to find out whether researchers want open access > truly needed at this time? In my opinion, not really - the open letter > calling for an establishment of a public library of science, signed by > 34,000 researchers worldwide, http://www.plos.org/about/letter.html, > followed by the very great many open access initiatives that have taken > place in the very near past, are more than sufficient evidence. This is > not to say there is no point in another survey - it's just to say that > anyone who says that there is no evidence that researchers want open > access is simply ignoring the facts. > > Congratulations to Martin Frank for having the courage to present his > anti-OA views on this forum! Communications, IMHO, work better when the > opposing sides actually talk to each other - I would encourage others with > these viewpoints to share them. I'd also warmly encourage them to change > sides and wholeheartedly embrace OA, too, but that's another matter :) > > Martin makes the point that faculty may not be fully informed about > the potential impact of OA, which would limit the usefulness of an > opinion survey at this point. I would agree, but from the opposite > perspective. As Stevan Harnad points out, the enhanced impact of open > access has been demonstrated, an obvious benefit to researchers. However, > from my point of view, the electronic medium combined with the world > wide web and open access allows for new, and greatly expanded, uses and > benefits of scientific knowledge, which are not yet fully understood, > and will not be fully realized for some time. > > For example, in the recent U.N. sponsored forum on Open Access, Rolf > Neth, a German scientist who has worked in the area of medical research > in Cherynobyl and Siberia, shares his view that "In our cooperation > with Russian colleagues in the field of Leukaemia access - or rather > the lack of access - to current research results was always a crucial > factor." http://groups.undp.org/read/messages? id=98584#98584. This > led to a commitment to OA, and development of the Wilsede Portal to free > scientific information. > > Many researchers will not have thought about the potential of OA to > instantaneously provide access to our collective scholarly knowledge to > fellow researchers and/or professionals working in the field who are > attempting to cope with a humanitarian and/or environmental disaster > such as Chernobyl. Raising awareness of this potential, to me, logically > comes before asking people whether they think OA is important or not. > > Which is why, with all due respect to Alma and her need for hard > data, I believe it is important to approach OA from a theoretical > point of view, and also that qualititave research is needed, not just > quantitative. Anecdotal evidence can help. > > With regards to Barbara's assessment of the need for OA in developing > countries, I agree but would like to point out that the analogy of whether > a hungry child would like a loaf for $2 or for free, greatly understates > the cost of scholarly information as provided by subscription or on a > pay-per- use basis. Even on a pay-per-use basis, costs per article tend > to be range from around $10 U.S. per article and up. Since scholarly > knowledge is not built on the reading of single articles, the price > for the hungry child might be best expressed as rather more than the > family's total annual income. The HINARI and AGORA programs do mitigate > against these extremely high prices for some information, for some of > the world's poorest peoples, of course. OA, however, has the potential > to work this way with all of our scholarly information, for everyone, > not just some people. > > best, > > Heather Morrison > Project Coordinator > BC Electronic Library Network > [email protected] > 604-268-7001 > Fax: 604-291-3023 > WAC Bennett Library > 8888 University Drive > Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
