From: Richard Poynder <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2013 16:49:23 +0100


Making Open Access (OA) a reality has proved considerably more
difficult and time consuming than OA advocates expected when they
started out. It is now 19 years since cognitive scientist Stevan
Harnad posted his Subversive Proposal calling on researchers to make
their papers freely available on the Web; and it is nearly 12 years
since those who took part in the Budapest Open Access Initiative
(BOAI) coined the term Open Access, and agreed on a definition.

However, few now doubt that OA is inevitable, and a number of
developments this year have served to confirm that. In February, for
instance, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
published a memorandum on public access in which it directed federal
agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures to develop plans to
make the published results of federally funded research freely
available to the public within one year of publication.

Then last month agreement was finally reached in Europe on the details
of the next EU research programme. Amongst other things, this will
require that papers arising from research the EU funds will have to be
made OA.

And two weeks ago G8 science ministers issued a joint endorsement of
the need to increase access to publicly-funded research.

In the meantime, OA mandates continue to be introduced by research
funders around the world, including recently in Belgium, Denmark,
Ireland, Iceland, and Australia.

In addition, of course, on April 1st Research Councils UK (RCUK)
introduced its highly controversial new OA policy, a policy that
sparked a great deal of bad-tempered wrangling, and led to two
inquires and the publication of a number of clarifications. Yet many
continue to have serious doubts about the policy, and fear its likely
consequences. Indeed, opinions on the best way forward for OA remain
generally divided.

So where is OA right now, what still needs to be done, and what should
be the priorities going forward?

With the aim of airing the views of a range of different people on
these matters I hope to publish a series of Q&A interviews in the
coming weeks, starting today with Mike Taylor, palaeontologist,
computer programmer and indefatigable OA advocate.

The interview can be read here:

http://poynder.blogspot.fi/2013/07/open-access-where-are-we-what-still.html

Richard Poynder