Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India 9 April 2011 (Draft) Table of Contents
Box 7, Workshop on Electronic Publishing and Open Access Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2-3 November 2006 [Supported by the Open Society Institute]
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- A National Open Access Policy for Developing Countries
- What are the benefits of Open Access to researchers As authors
- What should be done to implement the policy (answers to Frequently Asked Questions) What should be deposited when I have a paper ready for publication
- When should papers be deposited
- Will authors still be able to publish in a journal of their choice
- What is an open access journal
- How can I find out whether my journal has a policy compliant with immediately providing access as Open Access
- Do I need to deposit my paper if the journal publishing my research already provides immediate open access to my articles
- Peer-reviewed research papers resulting from publicly funded research should also be made available through open access channels, subject to copyright regulations.
Box 7, Workshop on Electronic Publishing and Open Access Indian
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The Bangalore workshop91 was convened to bring together policy makers and research scientists from major developing countries to agree a path forward towards adopting full Open Access to publicly-funded research publications. The importance of access to the world’s research information for the development of a strong economy and a vibrant research capability is widely acknowledged, yet financial barriers limit access by developing countries to the research information they need. Equally, the unique research carried out in countries representing 80 per cent of the world’s population is largely ‘invisible’ to international science because of economic or other constraints. The resolution of many of the world’s problems, such as emerging infectious diseases, environmental disasters, HIV/AIDS or climate change, cannot be achieved without incorporation of the research from developing countries into the global knowledge pool. Open Access to the world’s publicly funded research literature provides equal opportunities for the communication of all research information, eliminating financial barriers. Furthermore, articles made available electronically on an open access basis have been shown to be cited92 on average 50 per cent more often than non-open access articles from the same journal, thus ensuring the greatest possible benefit both to the authors, to the investment of funding agencies and to scientific progress. The benefits to authors, readers and their organisations is now increasingly recognised worldwide and at November 4th 2006, 761 repositories had already been registered in the Registry of Open Access Repositories, and the Open Archives Initiative’s OAIster search engine93 could search over 9,000,000 records in interoperable Open Access repositories. Building on the Budapest Open Access Initiative recommendations,94 and past Declarations of commitments to the strategy of Open Access,95particularly the Salvador International Declaration on Open Access for Developing Countries,96 and recognising the benefits that Open Access will bring to the strengthening of science, participants to the Workshop agreed the following model National Open Access Policy for Developing Countries.
The [country-name] Government/Government Department expects the authors of papers reporting publicly-funded research to maximise the accessibility, usage and applications of their findings. To this end: As a condition for research funding, the [country-name] Government:
What are the benefits to scientific research, research institutes, universities, authors and readers? What are the benefits of Open Access to [country-name]? First, [country-name's] research will be more accessible to global researchers, hence better known and more widely used and cited. The prestige of [country-name] researchers will increase significantly. Second, all [country-name] research will be open to all [country-name] entrepreneurs and the general public with Internet access. This will be beneficial both commercially and culturally. Third, access, usage and citation data on this research will increasingly become available for analysis to help shape researchers', institutions' and nations' strategies and policies. What are the benefits of Open Access to researchers? As authors, researchers benefit because their research papers are given a much wider dissemination and can be read without restriction by anyone with Internet access. This increases the impact of their research. Indeed, evidence is accumulating to show that open access articles are cited 25-250 per cent more than non-open access articles from the same journal and year1. As readers, researchers benefit because they will increasingly be able to access and use the full text of all the research published in their area, not just the research available to them via the subscriptions their institution can afford. This is particularly important where neighbouring countries share common problems and need to collaborate in their research effort. What should be done to implement the policy (answers to Frequently Asked Questions)? What should be deposited when I have a paper ready for publication? The final manuscript of the author's research paper should be deposited in the author’s Institutional Repository. This is the author's own final draft, as accepted for journal publication, including all modifications resulting from the peer-review process. (In addition, depositing pre-peer-review drafts, ‘preprints’, is welcome, if the author desires early priority and peer feedback, but this is just an option available to authors and not a requirement. In some cases publishers may permit their own published version, either in SGML/XML or PDF, to be deposited as well.) When should papers be deposited? An electronic version of the author's final manuscript resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, by Government funding should be deposited immediately upon acceptance for publication. What kind of papers should I deposit? The policy applies to peer-reviewed, original (primary) research publications and reviews that have been supported, in whole or in part, by Government funding. The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, or book reviews. Will authors still be able to publish in a journal of their choice? Authors will continue to decide in which journal to publish their research papers. They will only have to ensure that a copy of the final, peer-reviewed paper is deposited in their institutional repository immediately upon acceptance for publication. What is an open access journal? An open access journal makes articles it publishes freely accessible online6. Some open access journals cover their costs by charging the author's institution or funder for publication. The Government may cover such open access publication costs where funds are available and needed. Many journals absorb publication costs in other ways and make no charge. How can I find out whether my journal has a policy compliant with immediately providing access as Open Access? You should consult the individual journal's policy which is given in Sherpa97 at: or in the Journal Policies – List of Publishers.98 Do I need to deposit my paper if the journal publishing my research already provides immediate open access to my articles? Deposit is not required but is still recommended even if a manuscript has been accepted by an open access journal. Your institution will still wish to have your work deposited in its repository to enable it to maintain and make known a compete record of institutional research output. This workshop was made possible by financial support from the Open Society Institute and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Open Society Institute also supported a planning meeting in Toronto.
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The National Knowledge Commission, set up by the Government of India in June 2006, constituted several working groups. Two of them, viz. the one on Libraries and the other on Open Access and Open Educational Resources, came up with
recommendations on open access to knowledge. In its final report to the Prime minister, the Commission stated “to enable equitable and universal access to knowledge
resources, libraries should be encouraged to create more digital resources by digitising relevant reading material in different languages, which can be shared at all levels. Peer-reviewed research papers resulting from publicly funded research should also be made available through open access channels, subject to copyright regulations. It is recommended that open standards and free and open source software may be used for the above.”99 This recommendation was accepted by the Prime Minister in 2008. But many of government's agencies are yet to implement it.
When the world celebrated the first Open Access Week in October 2008, Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, Director General of CSIR, announced that all 17 journals published by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) would henceforth be open access. Before then only two NISCAIR journals were open access. He also constituted a committee to look into implementing an Open Access archiving policy for CSIR laboratories. Based on the recommendation of the committee a memorandum was sent by CSIR headquarters to directors of all 37 CSIR laboratories on 6 February 2009 requesting them to set up institutional open access repositories in each one of the laboratories [See Box 8, CSIR’s Effort to Mandate Open Access]. Unfortunately, the memorandum was signed not by Prof. Brahmachari but by a senior official in the CSIR headquarters. The move did not pay much dividend.
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