<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div lang="EN-GB" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><font face="Calibri"><span style="font-size: 16px;">(sorry for any cross posting)</span></font></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></span></strong></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Major international associations reaffirm their support for immediate open access to research articles</span></strong></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">On the occasion of Open Access Week, COAR and other international associations are reaffirming their support for immediate open access to research results. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">As organizations committed to the principle that access to information advances discovery, accelerates innovation and improves education, we endorse the policies and practices that enable Open Access – immediate, barrier free access to and reuse of scholarly articles.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Policies that promote Open Access are increasingly being adopted world wide by research funders, academic institutions and national governments in order to improve the use and value of scholarly research. We fully support such policies and the dual avenues for implementing them: open access repositories and open access journals. These policies play an important role in creating an environment where our collective investments in research can be maximized for the benefit of the public, and for society at large.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Many policies have employed the use of embargo periods – delayed access to research articles for a short period of time to help protect publishers’ subscription revenue as they shift to new business models. We consider the use of embargo periods as an acceptable transitional mechanism to help facilitate a wholesale shift towards Open Access. However, embargo periods dilute the benefits of open access policies and we believe that, if they are adopted, they should be no more than 6 months for the life and physical sciences, 12 months for social sciences and humanities. We further believe that mechanisms for reducing – or eliminating – embargo periods should be included in any Open Access policy.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Any delay in the open availability of research articles curtails scientific progress and stifles innovation, and places unnecessary constraints in delivering the benefits of research back to the public.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">We urge all organizations and individuals that support immediate open access to endorse the statement available <a href="https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/advocacy-leadership/aligning-repository-networks-across-regions/statement-about-embargo-periods/" style="color: purple; ">here</a>.</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p style="font-size: 16px;"> </o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Numerous associations and institutions from around the world have already lent their support to this statement.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p style="font-size: 16px;"> </o:p></div><div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Current signatories are:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><ul type="disc" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; "><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">COAR: Confederation of Open Access Repositories</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">EIFL: Electronic Information for Libraries</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">LIBER: Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche – Association of European Research Libraries</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">OpenAIRE: Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Electronic Frontier Foundation, USA</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Research Libraries of the United Kingdom</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Coaliton for Action “Copyright for Education and Research” (Aktionsbündnis “Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft”), Germany</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Australian National University</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">AOASG: Australian Open Access Support Group</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">INRIA: Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, France</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">NEREUS: N<span class="st">etwork of European Libraries in Economics and Social Sciences</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Carnegie Mellon University, USA</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, USA</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">SPARC Europe</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">CLASCO: Latin America Council of Social Sciences</span><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p style="font-size: 16px;"> </o:p></div></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">For more information, please contact:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p style="font-size: 16px;"> </o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Kathleen Shearer</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Executive Director, COAR</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><a href="mailto:kathleen.shearer@coar-repositories.org" style="color: purple; ">kathleen.shearer@coar-repositories.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><a href="http://www.coar-repositories.org/" style="color: purple; ">www.coar-repositories.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Skype: kathleen.shearer2</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">+1 514 847 9068</span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>