On Mon, 12 Dec 2011, LIBLICENSE wrote: > From:Â Sandy Thatcher <[email protected]> > Date:Â Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:31:04 -0600 > > The simplest way to ensure open access to publicly funded research is > to require every researcher to file a file report on the research > funded, which would then be posted on a government-controlled site. > This is much different, of course, than saying that authors should be > required to post their journal articles on such sites.
The general public may be satisfied with that (if they have any interest in reading the research results at all), but the primary intended users of the research -- other researchers -- would not, and especially if they were at institutions thast could not afford licensed access to the journal in which the article was published. And those are the users OA is about, and for. "Public access to publicly funded research" is a good slogan (and public access would certainly come with the territory, once we mandate OA); but it is not the fundamental reason why achieving OA is so important. And if it were, we would never achieve OA. The fundamental reason for achieving OA is to maximize the uptake, usage, applications, progress and impact of the research that the public funds, for the benefit of the public. Stevan Harnad > At 8:26 PM -0500 12/11/11, LIBLICENSE wrote: >> >> From: David Prosser <[email protected]> >> Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:00:56 +0000 >> >> >> The UK Government has just published its Innovation and Research >> Strategy for Growth, outlining how it will support research and >> development through the UK's universities: >> >> http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/innovation/docs/i/11-1387-innovation-and-research-strategy-for-growth.pdf >> >> Of particular interest to readers of this list will be section 6.6 >> onwards which deal with access to research outputs. Â To quote: >> >> "The Government, in line with our overarching commitment to >> transparency and open data, is committed to ensuring that >> publicly-funded research should be accessible free of charge. Free and >> open access to taxpayer-funded research offers significant social and >> economic benefits by spreading knowledge, raising the prestige of UK >> research and encouraging technology transfer. At the moment, such >> research is often difficult to find and expensive to access. This can >> defeat the original purpose of taxpayer-funded academic research and >> limits understanding and innovation. ... But we need to go much >> further if, as a nation, we are to gain the full potential benefits of >> publicly-funded research." >> >> Taken together with the UK's Science Minister's recent interview in >> the Guardian: >> >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/08/publicly-funded-research-open-access >> >> this signifies the strongest commitment to open access we have seen >> from the UK Government. >> >> David >
