Inspired by an article on open access on doctoral theses [8], here are some few investigations on current movements in the policy field lobbying open access scientific publications. This is a (certainly incomplete) first summary on the topic, its
occurrence in European policy and its relevance to young researchers.
DefinitionsIn
general, you have to differentiate between open access archives (e.g.
preprint archives) and open access journals. There is a priori *no
difference in quality* between the latter and traditional journals, as
quality instruments like peer review are independent from the way of
publication (and the peer review system mostly depends on voluntarily
engagement of the scientific communty even today)
The only
difference being is the free and open access (viewing, saving,
printing, etc) of the content of scientific articles to everyone via
internet. See [6] for a directory of open access journals with quality
control.DevelopmentIn
2002, the so called Budapest Open Access Initiative raised a call [3]
(which everybody,including institutions can still subscribe, by the
way) for all stakeholders in research to push forward open access
publishing In 2003, this initiative was carried further with support of
major german stakeholders (e.g. the Max Plank society) leading to the
so called Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in
the Sciences and Humanities [5] (not to be mixed up with the Berlin declaration in Bologna
Process) This year, there was the 4th followup conference of this movement in March [1]. European CommissionEuropean commission DG Research charged a couple of scientists with a "Study on the economic
and
technical evolution of the scientific publication market" which was
finished in January 2006 a [4] (April according to wikipedia??[2]) and
which eventually included the (cautious) recommendation to
"Guarantee
Public Access to publicly founded research results shortly after
publication.[..] This archiving could become a condition for
funding.[..] Establish a European policy mandating published articles
arising from EC-funded research to be available after a given time
period in open access archives" There was a consultation
on this study, which unfortunately expired some time ago. Yet on
European Commission webpage you can read "The Commission plans to
organize a conference on scientific publications on 19 and 20 December
2006. "[7]
Young ResearchersWhat is the connection to the interests of young researchers?
Young researchers are often more dependent access to current literature then established researchers
as
they have to get acquainted with the state-of-the-art in their
particular field. Moreover, there are still plenty of young researchers
in Europe which are not properly integrated in a scientific community.
Of course, in line with the Charter for Researchers [9], the primary
aim should be to ensure a "stimulating research [..] environment" [9]
itself, yet in the meantime, for many of them it will help a bit to
have a more direct access to scientific literature. On the
other side, young researchers are also often much more dependent on
publishing their work to well-known traditional journals which may not
(yet?) have an open access policy.
These are only some
preliminary thoughts on the implications of open access for young
researchers. This article is meant as stimulate some discussion on this
subject, so what are your thoughts on that issue?.
References
[1] http://berlin4.aei.mpg.de
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access
[3] http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
[4] http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-study_en.pdf
[5] http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html
[6] http://www.doaj.org
[7] http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/home_en.cfm
[8] Johannes Moes: Open Access: Offener Zugang und geistiges Eigentum der Promotion. in:
C.Koepernik et al: GEW Handbuch Promovieren mit Perspektive
[9] Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.
http://europa.eu.int/eracareers/europeancharter/
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