[A2k] Press release: Worldwide call for open access to European research

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

Petition on behalf of the worldwide Open Access movement: http://www.ec-pet=
ition.eu/

The EC-commissioned Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Sc=
ientific Publication Markets of Europe is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-stu=
dy_en.pdf

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:04:52 -0000
From: Philip POTHEN <p.pothen --- JISC.AC.UK>
Subject: Press release: Worldwide call for open access to European research

- Apologies for cross-posting -

Press Release

Worldwide call for free and open access to European research results

Over 10,000 individuals sign petition to European Commission to guarantee p=
ublic access to publicly funded research

January 29th 2007. Nobel laureates Harold Varmus and Rich Roberts are among=
 the more than ten thousand concerned researchers, senior academics,
lecturers, librarians, and citizens from across Europe and around the world=
 who are signing an internet petition calling on the European Commission to=
 adopt polices to guarantee free public access to research results and maxi=
mise the worldwide visibility of European research.

Organisations too are lending their support, with the most senior represent=
atives from over 500 education, research and cultural organisations in the =
world adding their weight to the petition, including CERN, the UK's Medical=
 Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Italian Rector's Conference, the=
 Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts & Sciences (KNAW) and the Swiss Academy=
 for the Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW), alongside the petition's sp=
onsors, SPARC Europe, JISC, the SURF Foundation, the German Research Founda=
tion (DFG) and the Danish Electronic Research Library (DEFF).

The petition calls on the EC to formally endorse the recommendations outlin=
ed in the EC-commissioned Study on the Economic and Technical
Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets of Europe. Published in ear=
ly 2006, the study made a number of important recommendations to help ensur=
e the widest possible readership for scholarly articles. In particular, the=
 first recommendation called for 'Guaranteed public access to publicly-fund=
ed research results shortly after publication' .

The EC will host a meeting in Brussels in February to discuss its position =
regarding widening access and the petition is intended to convey the
overwhelming level of public support for the recommendations of the EC stud=
y.

JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read, said: 'Maximising public investme=
nt in European research and making more widely available its outputs are ke=
y priorities for the European Union as it seeks to enhance the global stand=
ing of European research and compete in a global market. JISC is proud to b=
e sponsoring a petition which seeks these vital goals and which has already=
 attracted such widespread support.'

One of the petition's signatories, Richard J Roberts, Nobel Prize winner fo=
r Physiology or Medicine in 1993, said: "Open access to the published
scientific literature is one of the most desirable goals of our current sci=
entific enterprise. Since most science is supported by taxpayers it is
unreasonable that they should not have immediate and free access to the res=
ults of that research. Furthermore, for the research community the literatu=
re
is our lifeblood. By impeding access through subscriptions and then fragmen=
ting the literature among many different publishers, with no
central source, we have allowed the commercial sector to impede progress. I=
t is high time that we rethought the model and made sure that everyone had =
equal and unimpeded access to the whole literature. How can we do cutting e=
dge research if we don't know where the cutting edge is?"

The petition is available at: http://www.ec-petition.eu/

The EC-commissioned Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Sc=
ientific Publication Markets of Europe is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-stu=
dy_en.pdf

The petition is sponsored by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee, UK)=
, SURF (Netherlands) , SPARC Europe, DFG (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinsch aft,Germany), DEFF (Danmarks Elektroniske Fag- og Forsk=
ningsbibliotek ,Denmark).

For further information, please contact: Philip Pothen (JISC) on 07887 564 =
006 or p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk

--
Judit Rius Sanjuan
Attorney
judit.rius at cptech.org
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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