Re: Brisbane declaration on Open Access (fwd)

From: Arthur Sale <ahjs_at_OZEMAIL.COM.AU>
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 12:16:46 +1100

This declaration has got swallowed up amongst the c**P that has
polluted this forum in the last days. May I tease out a few strands
of the Brisbane Declaration for readers of the list, as a person who
was at the OAR Conference in Brisbane.

 

1.  The Declaration was adopted on the voices at the Conference,
revised in line with comments, and then participants were asked to
put their names to it post-conference. It represents an overwhelming
consensus of the active members of the repository community in
Australia.

2.  The Conference wanted a succinct statement that could be used to
explain to senior university administrators, ministers, and the
public as to what Australia should do about making its research
accessible. It is not a policy, as it does not mention any of the
exceptions and legalisms that are inevitably needed in a formal
policy.

3.  The Conference wanted to support the two Australian Ministers
with responsibility for Innovation, Science and Health in their moves
to make open access mandatory for all Australian-funded research.

4.  Note in passing that the Declaration is not restricted to
peer-reviewed articles, but looks forward to sharing of research data
and knowledge (in the humanities and arts).

5.  At the same time, it was widely recognized that publishers' pdfs
("Versions of Record") were not the preferred version of an article
to hold in a repository, primarily because a pdf is a print-based
concept which loses a lot of convenience and information for
harvesting, but also in recognition of the formatting work of journal
editors (which should never change the essence of an article). The
Declaration explicitly make it clear that it is the final draft
("Accepted Manuscript") which is preferred. The "Version of Record"
remains the citable object.

6.  The Declaration also endorses author self-archiving of the final
draft at the time of acceptance, implying the ID/OA policy (Immediate
Deposit, OA when possible).

 

While the Brisbane Declaration is aimed squarely at Australian
research, I believe that it offers a model for other countries. It
does not talk in pieties, but in terms of action. It is capable of
implementation in one year throughout Australia. Point 1 is written
so as to include citizens from anywhere in the world, in the hope of
reciprocity. The only important thing missing is a timescale, and
that's because we believe Australia stands at a cusp..

 

What are the chances of a matching declaration in other countries?

 

Arthur Sale

University of Tasmania

 

 

==============================================================

 

Following the conference on Open Access and Research held in
September in Australia, and hosted by Queensland University of
Technology, the following statement was developed and has the
endorsement of over sixty participants.

 

Brisbane Declaration

 

Preamble

The participants recognise Open Access as a strategic enabling
activity, on which research and inquiry will rely at international,
national, university, group and individual levels.

 

Strategies

Therefore the participants resolve the following as a summary of the
basic strategies that Australia must adopt:

1        Every citizen should have free open access to publicly
funded

research, data and knowledge.

2        Every Australian university should have access to a digital

repository to store its research outputs for this purpose.

3        As a minimum, this repository should contain all materials

reported in the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC).

4        The deposit of materials should take place as soon as

possible, and in the case of published research articles should be of
the author's final draft at the time of acceptance so as to maximize
open access to the material.

 

 

Brisbane, September, 2008
Received on Thu Oct 09 2008 - 04:41:17 BST

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