Guest guest Posted October 23, 2003 Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20031022/06 Open access EuropeLeading centers say they'll encourage researchers to publish in open-access journals | By Ned Stafford Representatives of major European research institutes meeting in Berlin on Wednesday (October 22) issued a declaration in support of open-access publishing of scientific and scholarly research. The declaration, dubbed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, says, " The Internet now offers the chance to constitute a global and interactive representation of human knowledge, including cultural heritage and the guarantee of worldwide access. " " Our organizations are interested in the further promotion of the new open access paradigm to gain the most benefit for science and society. Therefore, we intend to make progress by encouraging our researchers/grant recipients to publish their work according to the principles of the open access paradigm, " it says. Robert Schlögl, of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, told The Scientist that signatories included all major research institutes in Germany and France, as well as others throughout Europe, including Norway and Hungary. A similar document for US-based institutes has not yet been signed, he said. " Europeans are faster this time, " he said. " We have overtaken the Americans. " Open-access publishing allows readers to access, copy, and distribute research papers freely, subject to proper attribution of authorship. In both its commercial guise, as pioneered by BioMed Central (a partner with The Scientist), and the not-for-profit version being developed by, among others, the Public Library of Science (PLoS), open-access publishing is gaining increasing attention in the current international debate about scholarly communication. Schlögl said that a Web site containing a list of signatories to the Berlin Declaration will be updated by Thursday (October 23) to allow other European institutions to sign in support of the declaration. He also said that US representatives attending the conference had agreed to hold a joint conference on open access in April at a location yet to be determined. Earlier this year, a meeting of interested parties in the United States produced the Bethesda Statement on the principles of open-access publishing. The Max Planck Society strongly supports open access and has made " several hundred thousand euros " available to help cover the cost of the transition from current practices, Schlögl said. Rather than charging readers to access research, open-access publishers charge researchers or their institutions to publish. Schlögl was reluctant to specify the extra cost of publishing during the transition period. But when pressed, he said the Max-Planck-Society has estimated the additional cost at around 10%. " That is just an estimate, " he said. " We will see how it goes. " When the transition is complete, publishing costs for open access will be about the same as now for paper, he said. That transition time will vary according to scientific discipline, he said. For example, physics and mathematics research publishing is already advanced while " life sciences is on the slow end of the spectrum, " he said. He estimated it would take around 5 years to make the total transition to open access. Links for this article Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html Robert Schlögl http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/ac/director/director.html Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/grz/fhi_new.html BioMed Central http://www.biomedcentral.com Public Library of Science http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org Bethesda Statement on Open-access Publishing http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/bethesda.htm Search [input] [input] [input] News from The Scientist [input] BioMed Central [input] [input] Top news stories NIH privatization under fire Open access Europe Animal lab inquiry Bioresearch key for EU defense NIH to name extramural chief UK science tied-up in red tape Mixed results in GM crop trial Canadian investigators lose major perq Sign up for daily news alerts Receive daily news on your handheld device --> Elsewhere today Fossil fuels age debate Sydney Morning Herald Oct 22 Tighter safeguards needed in SARS labs New York Times Oct 22 Formula for scientific innovation: Omit walls San Francisco Chronicle Oct 21 Other ways to receive Daily News •By email •On your handheld device •RSS news feed Other pages News and Comment Archive More from The Scientist ©2003, The Scientist Inc. in association with BioMed Central NEW WEB MESSAGE BOARDS - JOIN HERE. Alternative Medicine Message Boards.Info http://alternative-medicine-message-boards.info The New with improved product search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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