[BOAI] Re: Open Access: Petition to the German Parliament

[Stevan Harnad]

On 13-Nov-09, at 4:18 AM, Talat Chaudhri wrote:

> Presuming that all EU citizens can sign the petition, there is the  
> slight difficulty that those that cannot read German, like me, will  
> find it hard to know how to do so. The English translation in the  
> link provided by Prof Hilf only provides translation of the text  
> itself. I'd appreciate guidance on where to click on the German web  
> site, from anyone who does read German. A small matter, I know - but  
> an important one!

Yes, citizens of other countries can sign, and fortunately Professor  
Hilf has provided the instructions (apologies for not having included  
it with his original posting):

How to vote (sorry, it is a little clumsy):

1. register: call the link https://epetitionen.bundestag.de
and go for the second line 'registrieren' and register.
[and enter your Country at the line 'Land').

2. you get an email with your permanent Username (Benutzername)
which should be the word 'Nutzer' together with a 6-decimal
number.

3. you go back to the serverpage and login:
[enter the Username) and the emailed-to-you password.

4.  you find the petition 'Wissenschaft und Forschung -
Kostenloser Erwerb wissenschaftlicher Publikationen'
by either scrolling to page two or three or by
using the 'detailed search' button. I typed in 'Kostenloser Erwerb'.

5. vote by clicking on the title and then in the fourth column
you can vote by clicking on 'Petition mitzeichnen'
[zeichnen means signing]

>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Talat
>
> Stevan Harnad wrote:
>> ** Apologies for Cross-Posting **
>>
>> Professor Eberhard Hilf is inviting the German and international
>> scholarly and scientific community to sign a petition to mandate Open
>> Access in Germany.
>>
>> http://www.zugang-zum-wissen.de/journal/archives/105-Open-Access-Petition-to-the-German-Parliament.html
>>
>> Professor Hilf writes:
>>
>> A Petition to the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) for Open
>> Access of documents in science and research has been launched by Lars
>> Fischer, see the English version of the Petition:
>> http://www.zugang-zum-wissen.de/oa-petition-german-parliament.html
>>
>> It can be signed online at Signing the petition:
>> https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/index.php?action=petition;sa=details;petition=7922
>>
>> The large and renowned Science Organisations in Germany and the
>> Coalition for Action "Copyright for Education and Research" are
>> calling all persons, active in science and academic education,
>> students and staff, librarians, scientists, to sign the petition, SEE
>> [Press Release in German].
>> http://www.urheberrechtsbuendnis.de/pressemitteilung1209.html.en
>>
>> Reference:
>> Statement of the Workgroup Open Access of the Alliance of the German
>> Science Organisations (Allianz der Wissenschaften): Open Access:
>> positions. processes, perspectives; (in German): Open Access:
>> Positionen, Prozesse, Perspektiven; Arbeitsgruppe Open Access in der
>> Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen.
>> http://www.allianz-initiative.de/fileadmin/openaccess.pdf
>>
>> COMMENT BY STEVAN HARNAD:
>>
>> Lars Fischer's statement is vague and thereby poses some risk of
>> having no practical effect unless it is made clear exactly what the
>> Bundestag is being asked to do, why, and how.
>>
>> Fortunately, it can be stated very clearly exactly what the petition
>> is for, and why, and if this clarification can be coupled with the
>> text sufficiently prominently, the outcome will be a coherent and
>> positive one:
>>
>> WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS? Free online access to all peer-reviewed research
>> articles (2.5 million annual articles published in 25,000
>> peer-reviewed journals, in all fields of science, social science and
>> humanities, worldwide).
>>
>> WHY OPEN ACCESS? To ensure that research findings are accessible to
>> all their potential users worldwide, so as to maximize research
>> uptake, usage, applications, impact, productivity and process, by
>> making it accessible to all its potential users worldwide, and not
>> just to those whose institutional libraries can afford a subscription
>> to the journal in which it happened to be published.
>>
>> HOW OPEN ACCESS? All universities and research institutions, and all
>> funders of research, need to mandate that the final, peer-reviewed
>> draft of all their research output must be deposited in an Open  
>> Access
>> Repository (Institutional or, optionally, Central) immediately upon
>> acceptance for publication, making it immediately accessible online,
>> free for all: http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/
>>
>> If these three points could be made, the petition will be precise,
>> comprehensible, and focussed.
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Here is the petition:
>>
>> Petition to the German Bundestag, the National Parliament
>>
>> Lars Fischer has created a petition to the Deutscher Bundestag to
>> support Open Access as an amendment to the pending legislation.
>> Signatures are now invited.
>>
>> Petition
>>
>> The German National Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) should decree
>> that scientific publications that result from public funding, should
>> be openly accessible. Those institutions that are autonomous should  
>> be
>> called upon by the Bundestag to set up and enforce suitable
>> regulations and to install suitable technical preconditions to ensure
>> that this is the case.
>>
>> Comment
>>
>> The Government supports research and development -- according to the
>> German Ministery for Education and Research in the amount of about 12
>> Billion Euro annually. The results of this research are published,  
>> but
>> mostly in toll-access journals. It is not acceptable that the  
>> taxpayer
>> should have to pay for research results for whose creation he has
>> already paid.
>> Because of the large costs and the multitude of scientific journals,
>> research results are accessible only in a few libraries. Most  
>> citizens
>> are thus de facto excluded from access to scientific results for  
>> which
>> they have paid.
>>
>> To exclude citizens from science is not only harmful, but  
>> unnecessary.
>> Other countries have already implemented what is being proposed here.
>> The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is requiring that all
>> publications that it has funded should be openly accessible within 12
>> months at a central server. The general structure of the scientific
>> publication system is not affected by this petition.
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> Dr Talat Chaudhri
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Research Officer
> UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, Great Britain
> Telephone: +44 (0)1225 385105    Fax: +44 (0)1225 386838
> E-mail: t.chaudhri at ukoln.ac.uk   Skype: talat.chaudhri
> Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/t.chaudhri/
> ------------------------------------------------------------

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