[BOAI] SURF: 2009 is Open Access year

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from SURF.  --Peter Suber.]


SURF: 2009 is Open Access year

Tackling restricted access to higher education research results

Utrecht, 26 February 2009 - The Dutch higher education sector has declared 
2009 to be 'Open Access Year'. The aim is to boost Open Access to the 
results of scientific/scholarly and practice-based research. Efforts will 
be made throughout the year to formulate and implement an Open Access 
policy, develop and improve the knowledge infrastructure, establish a clear 
legal framework, and create awareness with all stakeholders. The parties 
involved are the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the 
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Dutch higher 
education sector, and research institutions. SURF will act as the coordinator.

The Netherlands is one of the world leaders in achieving Open Access. The 
research universities and a large number of universities of applied 
sciences have created a knowledge infrastructure making possible permanent 
Open Access to publications. NARCIS, the national "gateway to Dutch 
scientific information", provides access to the full text of almost 170,000 
scientific and scholarly publications. The Knowledge Bank for Universities 
of Applied Sciences [HBO Kennisbank] gives access to the results of 
research by 'lectors' (directors of research groups and knowledge networks 
in Universities of Applied Science). Extensive information is also 
available about copyright in higher education, as well as a 'copyright 
toolbox' for authors and publishers. But there is still a lot to be done.

Public access

Dutch higher education institutions believe that radical improvements need 
to be made in Open Access to knowledge, information, and data.  Compared to 
the 'age of paper', digitisation of research and scientific/scholarly 
communication opens up opportunities that are still underutilised. Improved 
access creates a solid basis for the transfer of knowledge in education, 
knowledge generation for research, and knowledge valorisation for civil 
society. The central idea is that the results of publicly financed research 
should also be available to the public.

Dr Sijbolt Noorda, chairman of the Association of Universities in the 
Netherlands (VSNU), says that "It's in the interests of scientists and 
scholars for their publications to be digitally available for anyone in the 
world. It's in the interest of the general public too. Material that's been 
paid for out of our taxes can then be accessed and used by everyone."

Multimedia

Researchers and lectors need to be able to utilise all the new 
possibilities for scientific and scholarly communication opened up by the 
Internet and ICT. Authors are more 'visible' if their work is available on 
the Internet, and they have more readers than if they publish in the 
traditional journals only. The greatly increased cost of subscribing to the 
traditional journals means that university libraries and media centres can 
afford fewer and fewer of them. Moreover, scientific and scholarly 
publications increasingly consist of more than just text: primary research 
data and multimedia files are included, with audiovisual files and games 
being used to help present the research data. Constant development and 
improvement of the knowledge infrastructure is therefore necessary.

Copyright law

Information about copyright is also necessary because there are a lot of 
misunderstandings about Open Access and copyright. Complete transfer of 
copyright to a publisher, for example, may be an obstacle to the author's 
further use of the publication. This often means that the author is not 
even allowed to upload the work to his/her own personal website or to that 
of his/her knowledge network. Some publishers are prepared to arrange 
licences that do not require the exclusive transfer of copyright, but this 
is the common case yet.

Dr Noorda points out that five years ago the Netherlands was one of the 
pioneers in the field of Open Access "but since then all the other 
neighbouring countries have tackled it too. It's important for us to remain 
one of the leaders and really make progress."

Apart from Dr Noorda, various other administrators, university professors, 
and university deans have given their views on Open Access in a short film 
commissioned by SURF. The film can be viewed on a number of websites and on 
YouTube.

You can find this message also on the SURF website.