[BOAI] Scholarly Publishing Roundtable Releases Report and Recommendations

[Peter Suber]

The Scholarly Publishing Roundtable has released its report on OA to
federally-funded research.  I've pasted in the press release below.
 --Peter Suber.

Also see:

the full report and recommendations
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10044

the original version of this press release
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10052

the statement from PLoS on why it did not sign the final report
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10050

the statement from Elsevier on why it did not sign the final report
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10054

the original charge to the members
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=9666

the membership list and member bios
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10046
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=9668

the Roundtable home page, which includes all the links above
http://www.aau.edu/policy/scholarly_publishing_roundtable.aspx?id=6894

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2010

PRESS CONTACTS:
Barry Toiv
Association of American Universities
barry_toiv at aau.edu

Jason Bardi
American Institute of Physics
jbardi at aip.org

EXPERT PANEL CALLS ON U.S. RESEARCH AGENCIES TO DEVELOP POLICIES
FOR PROVIDING FREE PUBLIC ACCESS TO FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH RESULTS

Policies Should Protect Peer-Reviewed Publications While Ensuring Rapid
Access

An expert panel of librarians, library scientists, publishers, and
university academic leaders today called on federal agencies that fund
research to develop and implement policies that ensure free public access to
the results of the research they fund “as soon as possible after those
results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.”

The Scholarly Publishing Roundtable was convened last summer by the U.S.
House Committee on Science and Technology, in collaboration with the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  Policymakers asked
the group to examine the current state of scholarly publishing and seek
consensus recommendations for expanding public access to scholarly journal
articles.

The various communities represented in the Roundtable have been working to
develop recommendations that would improve public access without curtailing
the ability of the scientific publishing industry to publish
peer-reviewed scientific articles.

The Roundtable’s recommendations, endorsed in full by the overwhelming
majority of the panel (12 out of 14 members), “seek to balance the need for
and potential of increased access to scholarly articles with the need
to preserve the essential functions of the scholarly publishing enterprise,”
according to the report.

"I want to commend the members of the Roundtable for reaching broad
agreement on some very difficult issues,” said John Vaughn, executive vice
president of the Association of American Universities, who chaired the
group.  “Our system of scientific publishing is an indispensible part of the
scientific enterprise here and internationally.  These recommendations
ensure that we can maintain that system as it evolves and also ensure full
and free public access to the results of research paid for by the American
taxpayer.”

The Roundtable identified a set of principles viewed as essential to a
robust scholarly publishing system, including the need to preserve peer
review, the necessity of adaptable publishing business models, the benefits
of broader public access, the importance of archiving, and the
interoperability of online content.

In addition, the group affirmed the high value of the "version of record"
for published articles and of all stakeholders' contributions to sustaining
the best possible system of scholarly publishing during a time of tremendous
change and innovation.

To implement its core recommendation for public access, the Roundtable
recommended the following:

* Agencies should work in full and open consultation with all stakeholders,
as well as with OSTP, to develop their public access policies.

* Agencies should establish specific embargo periods between publication and
public access.

* Policies should be guided by the need to foster interoperability.

* Every effort should be made to have the Version of Record as the version
to which free access is provided.

* Government agencies should extend the reach of their public access
policies through voluntary collaborations with non-governmental
stakeholders.

* Policies should foster innovation in the research and educational use of
scholarly publications.

* Government public access policies should address the need to resolve the
challenges of long-term digital preservation.

* OSTP should establish a public access advisory committee to facilitate
communication among government and nongovernment stakeholders.

In issuing its report, the Roundtable urged all interested parties to move
forward, beyond “the too-often acrimonious” past debate over access issues
towards a collaborative framework wherein federal funding agencies can build
“an interdependent system of scholarly publishing that expands public access
and enhances the broad, intelligent use of the results of federally funded
research.”

The report, as well as a list of Roundtable members, member biographies, and
the House Science and Technology Committee’s charge to the group, can be
found at
http://www.aau.edu/policy/scholarly_publishing_roundtable.aspx?id=6894.

For more information, contact:

Paul N. Courant
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries
University of Michigan
(734) 764-9356
pnc at umich.edu

Fred Dylla
Executive Director and CEO
American Institute of Physics
(301) 209-3131
dylla at aip.org

James J. O'Donnell
Professor of Classics
Provost
Georgetown University
202-687-2015
provost at georgetown.edu

Crispin Taylor
Executive Director
American Society of Plant Biologists
301-296-0900
ctaylor at aspb.org

John Vaughn
Executive Vice President
Association of American Universities
202-408-7500
john_vaughn at aau.edu
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