[Upd-discuss] Fellows of the Royal Society rebel against Royal Society's anti-Open Access position

[Zapopan Martin Muela-Meza]

... and librarians should join forces to make it a worldwide rebellion in
favour of Open Access... ZM
---------------------------------------
Date:	 Wed, 7 Dec 2005 00:28:59 +0000
From:	"Stevan Harnad" <harnad@ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>  
Subject:	Open Letter about OA to the Royal Society by Fellows of the Royal
Society
To:	AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG

Forty two Fellows of the Royal Society (including 5 Nobel Laureates)
have signed the following Open Letter to Lord Martin Rees
expressing concern about the Society's statement on open access

    http://www.frsopenletter.org/
----------------
Lord Martin Rees
President
Royal Society
6-9 Carlton Terrace
London
SW1Y 5AG

7th December 2005  

Dear Lord Rees

As Fellows of the Royal Society, we would like to express our
disappointment with the Society's recent position statement1 on open
access to published research. The society's statement, which takes a
largely negative stance on open access, appears to be aimed at delaying
implementation of the Research Councils UK's proposed policy2 on access to
research outputs.

As working scientists who support open access to published research, we
believe that the Society should support RCUK's proposal, rather than
oppose it. The proposed RCUK policy will ensure that the results of
research funded by the Research Councils are made freely and rapidly
available, maximizing their utility not only to the scholarly community in
the United Kingdom and around the world, but also to practitioners
(including doctors and nurses) and to the British public whose taxes
largely support the research. The RCUK policy has strong backing from
librarians and academics, and has received official support3 from
Universities UK, the organization that represents UK university
vice-chancellors and principals.

In seeking to delay or even to block the proposed RCUK policy, the Royal
Society appears to be putting the concerns of existing publishers
(including the Society itself) ahead of the needs of science. The position
statement ignores considerable evidence demonstrating the viability of
open access, instead warning ominously of 'disastrous' consequences for
science publishing. We believe that these concerns are mistaken.

The move towards open access to research literature builds on the
tradition of making research data openly available, a standard that is
well established within the scientific community. For example, free
availability of genetic data, such as the genome sequences of humans,
mice, pathogens and plants, has greatly accelerated the pace of research
in both academic and commercial settings

In adopting a pro-open access policy, RCUK will be joining an increasing
number of funding agencies striving for open access to research results.
In the UK, the Wellcome Trust has already taken a lead by requiring that
articles be placed in an openly accessible archive. In the US, funders
such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of
Health have adopted policies to increase access to research. And across
Europe and the rest of the world funding agencies are recognizing that
public access to the fruits of the research they fund will ensure that
this work is effective in fostering the global sharing of knowledge and
the creativity that is essential to scientific endeavour.

As Fellows, we urge the Royal Society not to delay the proposed RCUK
policy, but to support it so as to foster professional and public access
to research information, and to enable British research to achieve its
maximum potential.

Sincerely,

Professor Michael Ashburner FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute,
Hinxton, UK
Professor Jonathan Ashmore FRS, University College London, UK
Professor Allan Bradley FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK
Professor Adrian Bird FRS, University of Edinburgh, UK
Professor Martin Bobrow FRS, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Mark S Bretcher FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology,
Cambridge, UK
Professor Jeremy Brockes FRS, University College London, UK
Professor Ian Butterworth FRS, Imperial College, London, UK
Professor George Cross FRS, Rockefeller University, New York City, NY, USA
Professor Kay E Davies FRS, MRC Functional Genetics Unit, Oxford, UK
Dr Richard Durbin FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK
Professor Douglas T Fearon FRS, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Mike Gale FRS, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
Dr Michel Goedert FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Professor Peter Goodfellow FRS, UK
Professor Michael B. Green FRS, University of Cambridge, UK
*Professor Brian Greenwood FRS, London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, UK
Professor Norman N Greenwood, FRS, University of Leeds, UK
Professor Frank Grosveld FRS, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
*Professor Paul Harvey FRS, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Nick Hastie FRS, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, UK
Professor Brigid Hogan FRS, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Professor Jonathan C Howard FRS, University of Cologne, Germany
Professor Thomas Jessell FRS, Columbia University, New York, USA
Professor Marc Kirschner ForMemRS, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA,
USA
Professor Donald Knuth ForMemRS, Stanford University, CA, USA
Professor Arthur Kornberg FRS and Nobel Laureate, Stanford University, CA,
USA
Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FRS, National Institute for Medical Research,
London, UK
Professor Andrew Lumsden FRS, Kings College, London, UK
Professor Philippa Marrack FRS, National Jewish Medical and Research
Centre, Denver, CO, USA
Professor David Q Mayne FRS, Imperial College, London, UK
*Professor Michael E McIntyre MAE FRS, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Hugh Pelham FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge,
UK
Professor Martin Raff FRS, University College, London, UK
Professor Richard Roberts FRS and Nobel Laureate, New England Biolabs, USA
*Dr Elizabeth Robertson FRS, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Nancy Rothwell FRS, Univerity of Manchester, UK
Professor Geoffrey Raisman FRS, University College, London, UK
Professor Charles R. Scriver FRS, McGill University, Quebec, Canada
Professor David J. Sherratt FRS, University of Oxford, UK
*Professor Peter Somogyi, FRS, Director MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology
Unit, Oxford, UK
Dr John Sulston FRS and Nobel Laureate, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute,
Cambridge, UK
Professor Janet Thornton FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute,
Cambridge, UK
Professor James Till FRS, University of Toronto, Canada
Professor Harold Varmus ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA
Professor James D Watson ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory, New York, USA

* Asterisks denote signatories who have added their name to the letter
since it was initially sent.
Links

   1. Royal Society position statement on ’open access’
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=3882
   2.
      RCUK Position Statement on Access to Research Outputs, June 2005
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/statement.pdf
   3.
      Universities UK supports calls for web access to research results
      http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/mediareleases/show.asp?MR=431

If you are a Fellow of the Royal Society and would like to add your name
as a signatory to this letter, send an email to
frsopenletter@googlemail.com

-------------------

Zapopan Muela
----------------------------- v -------------------------------
"Tiranos y autócratas han entendido siempre que el alfabetismo, 
el conocimiento, los libros y los periódicos son un peligro 
en potencia. Pueden inculcar ideas independientes e incluso
de rebeldía en las cabezas de sus súbditos.
----------------------------- v -------------------------------
"Tyrants and autocrats have always understood that literacy, 
learning, books and newspapers are potentially dangerous. 
They can put independent and even rebelious ideas to the heads 
of their subjects."
----------------------------- v -------------------------------
-- Sagan, Carl (1997). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle
in the Dark : El mundo y sus demonios: La ciencia como una luz en la 
oscuridad. México: Planeta, p. 390; New York: Ballantine Books, p. 362.


		
__________________________________________ 
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. 
Just $16.99/mo. or less. 
dsl.yahoo.com