EURAB's Proposed OA Mandate: Strongest of the 20 Adopted and 5 Proposed So Far

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:25:35 +0000

    Optimizing OA Self-Archiving Mandates:
    What? Where? When? Why? How?
    http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html

The ROARMAP Registery of University and Finder Self-Archiving Mandates
keeps growing: 56 policies, 20 adopted mandates, and 5 proposed
mandates so far:

    http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php

But the latest mandate proposal from EURAB is the best of them all: So
good that I don't have a single recommendation for improving it! It has
all the essential ingredients:

        (1) Deposit of peer-reviewed postprint is required

        (2) Deposit required immediately upon acceptance for publication
        (no exceptions, no delays)

        (3) Deposit in Institutional or Central Repository

        (4) Set access to deposit as Open Access as soon as possible,
        within 6 months at the latest.

That's it! It's not possible to design a better policy, or one that is
surer to get the entire international research community to 100% more
rliably, quickly or effectively. Here's the policy. Please emulate it
at your university, research institutions or funding agency and we'll
reach the optimal and inevitable at long last.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/eurab/pdf/eurab_scipub_report_recomm_dec06_en.pdf

Recommendations

The European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) has recommended that the
European Commission should promote open access publication policies
for all their publicly funded research. EURAB was invited by the
Commission to examine the issue of scientific publication with
particular reference to policy recommendations regarding open access
for Framework Program 7 (FP7). It has recommended that a clear policy
at European level is required which sets out a number of key high
level principles. The Commission can play a role in three respects: as
a funding body, as a policy body, as a supporting body.

1. The publication policy should not compromise the freedom of
scientists to publish wherever they feel is most appropriate.

2. The effect of the policy should be to increase the visibility of
and improve access to the research funded by the Commission.

3. The policy should be based on recognized best practice

4. EURAB recommends that the Commission should consider mandating all
researchers funded under FP7 to [deposit] their publications resulting
from EC-funded research in an open access repository as soon as
possible after publication, to be made openly accessible within 6
months at the latest.

       a. The repository may be a local institutional and/or a subject
repository.
       b. Authors should deposit post-prints (or publisher's version
if permitted) plus metadata of articles accepted for publication in
peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings.
      c. Deposit should be made upon acceptance by the
journal/conference. Repositories should release the metadata
immediately, with access restrictions to full text article to be
applied as required. Open access should be made available as soon as
practicable after the author-requested embargo, or six months,
whichever comes first.
      d. Suitable repositories should make provision for long-term
preservation of, and free public access to, published research
findings.

5. Given the complexity of the issues involved, the Commission should
consider implementation of this policy on a phased basis, starting
with research funded by the European Research Council.

The Commission should strongly encourage all Member States to promote
open access publication policies for all their publicly funded
research.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/eurab/pdf/eurab_scipub_report_recomm_dec06_en.pdf

If your university, research institution, or research funding agency has
adopted or proposes to adopt an OA self-archiving mandate, please
register it for others to emulate at:

    http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/sign.php

Stevan Harnad
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/
Received on Mon Jan 15 2007 - 22:51:13 GMT

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