[BOAI] Greater Access to Climate Impact Research

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from Ivo Grigorov.  --Peter Suber.]


 *Press Release – 28 Oct 2010 (Plouzané, France)*



*Greater Access to Climate Impact Research *


 *The EUR-OCEANS Consortium of 29 European marine research institutes adopts
a mandate to publish consortium-funded, peer-reviewed climate impact
research freely accessible to society.*

* *

This October, the 29 members of the EUR-OCEANS Consortium voted in favour of
adopting an « open access » policy to publishing scientific research. The
EUR-OCEANS Consortium aims to fund top-level science on the impacts of
anthropogenic and natural climate pressures on marine ecosystems, including
the polar environment.



The favourable vote is announced only two months after the French Institute
for Sea Exploration, Ifremer, introduced the first compulsory mandate in
France. According to the mandate all scientists will deposit their final
version of their peer-reviwed publications in an open repository, which then
makes the research freely accessible in agreement with publishers`
copyright.

Mandates of this type insure that 100% of public-funded research is
immediately and freely accessible to society, compared to just 5-25% without
mandates[1] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftn1>.



Despite the fact that most fundamental research is funded by public funds,
the public itself has severely restricted access to the 2,5 million articles
that scientists across all disciplines publish each
year[2]<#12bf358544d325c0__ftn2>.
Most articles cost anywhere from 9-40 dollars to read by members of the
public, reducing the flow of information. In recent years, even the
universities themselves struggle to pay the high subscriptions to the
journals in which their own scientists contribute.



This paradox strengthened the « open access » movement in the 1990s,
specifically with respect to free access to the latest medical research for
doctors and patients.  In the age of global climate change, the ethical and
practical need to have access to the latest research remains. The state of
the marine ecosystems and the polar environment is no longer of interest
just to the academics alone.



The increased free access to the latest research is not just an ethical
argument, however.  « Open access » advocates are producing an increasing
body of work suggesting that the public does seek scientific
publications[3]<#12bf358544d325c0__ftn3>and that providing free access
to research is beneficial both to progress of
research itself[4] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftn4> as well as applying that
knowledge in society.



The availability of information can also accelerate public debate on
critical regional issues like eutrophication, biodiversity change,
aquaculture and services provided by the marine environment to the local
economy.



The argument for open access has gained new importance in the last two
years, following controversies over the openness and transparency of climate
research and climate data.



The policy proposition to the EUR-OCEANS Consortium was authored by
Catherine Bertignac (Université de Bretagne Occidentale), Dominique Gac
(Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique), Ivo Grigorov (CNRS), at
Technopôle, Plouzané, and Alma Swan (Enabling Open Scholarship) based in
Great Britain.



*Links:*


Policy proposition to EO Consortium: http://
www.eur-oceans.net/?q=node/22286

Outcome of the EO Council vote: http://www.eur-oceans.net/?q=node/22348

EUR-OCEANS logo -
http://www.eur-oceans.net/sites/default/files/EOC_logo_cmyk_vectorised.eps



EUR-OCEANS Consortium members; www.eur-oceans.net

Denmark DTU Aqua Denmark National Institute of Aquatic Resources

Estonia EMI Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu (invited member)

Finland SYKE Finnish Environment Institute

France IFREMER Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer

France INSU-CNRS Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers – Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique

France IRD Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

France UBO Université de Bretagne Occidentale

France UPMC Université Pierre et Marie Curie

France UnivMed Université Aix-Marseille 2

France CLS Collecte Localisation Satellites

Germany AWI Alfred Wegener Institut

GermanyUniHB Universität Bremen

Germany UniHH Universität Hamburg

Greece HCMR Greece Hellenic Center for Marine Research

Italy CNR Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche

Italy CoNISMa Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare

Italy SZN Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’ Napoli

Italy OGS Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale

Latvia BIOR Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (invited
member)

Morocco INRH  Institut National de la Recherhe Halieutique (invited member)

Norway NTNU  Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Norway Un Oslo University of Oslo

Poland IO PAS Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences

South Africa UCT University of Cape Town (invited member)

Spain AZTI Fundacion AZTI

Sweden Stockholm Un University of Stockholm

UK BAS (NERC) British Antarctic Survey

UK NOCS (NERC) National Oceanographic Centre Southampton

UK PML Plymouth Marine Laboratory



*Contacts : *

*
*

Ivo Grigorov, CNRS : ivo_grigorov at hotmail.com

Alma Swan, Enabling Open Scholarship & Key Perspectives (UK) :
info at openscholarship.org

EUR-OCEANS Consortium (Séte, France) : po at eur-oceans.eu

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

[1] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftnref> Hajjem, C., Harnad, S. and Gingras, Y.
(2005) Ten-Year Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the Growth of Open Access
and How it Increases Research Citation Impact. *IEEE Data Engineering
Bulletin*, 28 (4). pp. 39-47. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11688/

[2] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftnref> Global Seriasl Directory
http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/

[3] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftnref> Science & Technology Committe reporting to
the UK Parliament, Tenth Report 2004
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39902.htm

[4] <#12bf358544d325c0__ftnref> Open Citation Project Bibliography
http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html
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