On 2013-01-18, at 1:28 PM, Peter Suber <[email protected]> wrote:
> [Forwarding from Ruth Marinez at GFII (Groupement Français de l'Industrie de > l’Information), via the GOAL list. --Peter Suber.] > > Recommendations of the European Commission > on Open Access : GFII’s first comments > 11 January 2013 Reminder: A 2-day meeting January 24-25 in Paris will be addressing this very question: Promoting open access to research outputs http://couperin.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en > On July 17, 2012, the European Commission issued a recommendation > encouraging the Member States to make necessary arrangements to disseminate > publicly funded research through open access publication, as soon as > possible, preferably immediately and in any case within 6 or 12 months after > the date of publication, depending on the discipline. > > The French government should soon take a stand on this issue. In this > context, the professional Group GFII, bringing together public and private > stakeholders involved in the information and knowledge industry, would like > to inform the government on the preliminary findings of its Working Group on > Open Access. The text below has been discussed by the GFII Board of Directors > and was approved with just one vote against (CNRS). > > The GFII shares the conviction that publications, which are researchers > output, must be disseminated as open as possible and as soon as possible to > the benefit of their authors, their institutions, readers and the whole of > society. But the Group recalls that editing scientific texts, either in the > Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) or in the Scientific, Technical and > Medical (STM) publishing, is not only publishing it, particularly in the > digital environment. Indeed, editing scientific texts involves different > stages including selecting, enhancing and validating information through > exchanges with authors on a regular basis, correcting proofs, formatting it, > printing these manuscripts or posting it online and ensuring sustainable > indexing on valuable platforms, enhancing it by adding metadata, developing > tools to facilitate information retrieval through databases, > communicating/promoting authors and their research, etc. So many activities > and services are needed to the scientific community and they have a cost that > requires to be paid. Open Access needs therefore to find a balance between > ensuring the widest dissemination of research publications and business > models allowing a real editorial and promotional work of scientific texts for > their potential readers. In absence of balance between these different > objectives, the scientific information sector will be deeply destabilized. > > The balance is even more difficult to find since the situation is actually > different depending on the discipline, the linguistic area or the type of > works published. There are differences, for example, in scholarly publishing > in the STM compared with the HSS, as the former is largely globalized whereas > the latter is highly dependent on specificities of each linguistic area. And > within these fields of disciplines, there are major differences of > communication practices between each discipline. For the GFII, it is only > through consultation between the scientific communities, publishers and > distributors of scientific publications that such complex issues can be > really addressed and that a balanced outcome can be achieved. It is convinced > that this consultation is an essential step before any decision is made on > the subject. > > To avoid counterproductive effects, particularly in areas where public and > private national publishing houses or publishing structures are involved, the > GFII strongly recommends an independent impact study seeking to address the > following questions : > > - What is, for each discipline, the adequate embargo period needed for > rewarding fairly scholarly publishing actors ? > > - If adequate embargo periods for each discipline were not obtained, > which other business models could be implemented to ensure quality, > diversity, sustainability and independence of scientific publications > (“Author pays” model, freemium model, etc.) ? What would be the cost of it ? > How to bear this cost ? > > - In accordance to the measures currently specified by the European > Commission for the Horizon 2020 program, what should the French government do > to provide a mechanism for an immediate posting of scholarly articles through > pre-financing of publication costs ? What would be the case for the > Humanities and Social Sciences in particular ? > > - What would be the impact of science dissemination using open access > on other publishing sectors such as the professional publishing and/or other > knowledge publishing sectors ? > > We believe also that the Government should take account of the following > points : > > - Which type of publications should not be subject to the regulatory > measures being considered ? Regarding self-archiving, should recommendations > only be applied on journal articles or also on collective books and even > research monographs ? > > - How should a “publicly funded” research be clearly defined ? For > example, should we consider that all the writings of an author that has been > paid from public funds, in some way, must be made freely available (after the > embargo period) ? Should knowledge transfer publications and scientific > publications be concerned by the proposed measures once their authors are > “paid from public funds” through their salaries for example ? > > The Commission Communication was also on other subjects which are the main > focus of GFII’s work, including Open research data. The Working group on Open > Access will shortly prepare an analytical and conceptual paper and what > appeared to constitute the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific and > technical information ecosystem in France will be discussed. > > GFII stands ready to provide any clarification or assistance on these issues > to the French government and in case it would consider that such a study is > required before making any decisions on the transposition of the European > Recommendation. > > About the GFII > > The GFII (Groupement Français de l’Industrie de l’Information) includes > representatives from the information and knowledge market : information > producers, publishers, servers, intermediaries, information providers, > service providers, software developers, libraries and subscription agencies. > > The GFII hosts working groups allowing members of the information industry to > meet, discuss and exchange points of view on the legal, technical and > economic aspects of the sector. With a membership from the private and public > sectors, the GFII is a valuable forum for helping stakeholders to get to know > one another and to exchange about their jobs, their goals and their > constraints. The GFII has been assisting all the stakeholders in the > development of the digital information market and is running an e-books > working group. > > About GFII’s Working Group on Open Access > > Created in September 2007 and including representatives from the main > economic stakeholders involved in Open Access: research institutes, > publishers, aggregators, internet services, subscription agents, academic > libraries, the GFII’s Working Group on Open Access aims to analyze this > movement and its demands and also to advance it at the national level through > a constructive and reasonable approach. As a result of the Group’s work, a > series of recommendations has been published in June 2010 and is available > online at http://www.gfii.fr/fr/groupe/open-access. One of these > recommendations was on setting up and operating “a shared, standardized and > transparent information site to display each publisher’s policy with regard > to Open Access repositories”. To this end, publishers within the SNE > (Syndicat National de l’Edition) and the SPCS (Syndicat de la Presse > Culturelle et Scientifique) have been meeting the CNRS in order to > collaborate in the creation of the Héloise platform developed by the > CCSD-CNRS. The platform is today online and hosted by the publishers > (http://heloise.ccsd.cnrs.fr/). > > The working group which has been relaunched in early 2012 is chaired by > Ghislaine Chartron who is professor of Information and Communication Sciences > and Chair of Document Engineering in the CNAM (Conservatoire National des > Arts et Métiers). > > Contact : > > Ruth Martinez, General Delegate, GFII > [email protected] > tel 00 33 1 43 72 96 52 > _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
