[GOAL] UNESCO's new open access policy - what are the implications for repositories?

[Danny Kingsley]

<apologies for cross posting>

Hi all,

On 13 May UNESCO announced an open access policy applicable to all new UNESCO publications. Currently it relates only to new UNESCO publications, but they are working on applying the policy retroactively (to works already published).

The policy (below) says that they will make everything available in a UNESCO repository, but the license statement seems to be that we would be able to make copies of them available in a separate repository. In Australia we have people who publish in UNESCO documents, so from now on we should be able to put up the published version of these works (and possibly once the retroactive part is sorted out we can put all the old ones up too).

What is not clear is whether research that was funded by a UNESCO grant and published elsewhere is intended to be made open access as well. Is this a mandate?

A press release about the policy is here: http://www.unicmanila.org/index.php?mod=press_releases&id=140
The policy itself is here: www.unesco.org/new/en/openaccesspolicy<http://www.unesco.org/new/en/openaccesspolicy> (Text below)

Danny

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

“Equal access to science is not only a social and ethical requirement for human development, but also essential for realizing the full potential of scientific communities worldwide and for orienting scientific progress towards meeting the needs of humankind”.

The World Conference on Science, 1999, held under the auspices of UNESCO and ICSU

Introduction

Advancements in education, science and culture are made possible through broad and unfettered access to research and knowledge, enabling policy-makers, researchers, practitioners and the general public to use and build upon this knowledge. As an intergovernmental organization, UNESCO has a fundamental interest in ensuring that the outputs created by the Organization, including publications, data and resources, are available to the widest possible audience.

UNESCO strongly supports unrestricted Open Access (OA), which promotes the principle of openness, an essential element of progress. The importance of OA has been recognized both by other agencies and the private sector. The World Bank and the Wellcome Trust, for example, have implemented their own Open Access policies.

Objective

In principle, all of UNESCO’s publications are protected by copyright. Through a new Open Access Policy for its publications, UNESCO will provide online access to all of its (research) outputs without many of the restrictions commonly imposed by copyright.

As one of the first steps, UNESCO will make these publications available online through a multilingual Repository.

The objective of this policy is to improve access to research created by UNESCO and to increase the dissemination of the resulting data.

Applicability

UNESCO’s Open Access Policy would grant an irrevocable worldwide right of access to copy, use, distribute, transmit, and make derivative works in any format within certain constraints.

According to UNESCO’s Rules and Regulations, all intellectual property rights, including title, copyright and patent rights, concerning any work produced by a member of the Secretariat as part of his/her official duties, shall be vested in the Organization. Therefore, this Policy will apply to any publication created by a staff member for whom the Publications Board has given its approval on or after 1 June 2013.

Resources produced in whole by a member of the Secretariat and published externally should not assign UNESCO’s copyright to the external publisher (UNESCO should retain its rights). ERI/DPI will negotiate an agreement with the publisher.


Dr Danny Kingsley
Executive Officer
Australian Open Access Support Group
e: eo at aoasg.org.au<mailto:eo at aoasg.org.au>
p: +612 6125 6839
w: wwww.aoasg.org.au
t: @openaccess_oz
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