Paris, 22 September 2005
Governments would boost innovation and get a better return on their investment in publicly funded research if they made research findings more widely available, according to a new OECD report on the scientific publishing industry.
The increasing online availability of research data is changing research practices and the growing trend of making primary data sources directly accessible is changing the business models of the scientific publishing industry, the report finds.
Findings of the report include:
- Scientific publishing embraced on-line distribution early with an estimated 75% of
published scholarly journals already available online, and three major business models depending on
digital delivery are emerging:
- The so-called "Big Deal", where institutional and other subscribers pay for access to an
online digital content aggregation of journal titles through licensing arrangements.
- Open access publishing, where authors and/or their employing or funding organisations pay some
or all of the costs of publication.
- Open access archives and repositories, where organisations support institutional repositories and/or subjects.
- The so-called "Big Deal", where institutional and other subscribers pay for access to an
online digital content aggregation of journal titles through licensing arrangements.
Among its recommendations are that:
- Governments should increase access to findings from publicly funded research to maximise
social returns on public investments.
- This principle was underlined in the 2004 OECD Science Ministerial's Declaration on
Access to Research Data from Public Funding which recognised that open access to, and
unrestricted use of, data promotes scientific progress and facilitates the training of researchers.
- Coordinated efforts at national and international levels are needed to broaden access to data from publicly funded research and contribute to the advancement of scientific research and innovation.
For further information, please contact Graham Vickery / Sacha Wunsch-Vincent on + 33 1 45 24 86 11. The study is part of a broader project on digital content.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
http://www.oecd.org
Item source: http:///www.oe
cd.org/document/55/0,2340,e n_2649_201185_35397879_1_1_1_1,00.html
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