January 13, 2010
Report Finds Common Ground in Efforts to Balance Public Access, Scholarly Publishing
(Washington, DC) – A group of representatives from university administration, libraries, information science departments, and the publishing industry collectively released a report with recommendations on open access, specifically the public availability of peer-reviewed journal articles containing data and findings from federal research grants.
The report’s recommendations, endorsed by a majority of the 14 members of the group, called the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable, sought to “balance the need for increased access to scholarly articles with the need to preserve the essential functions of the scholarly publishing enterprise.”
One key recommendation is the establishment of specific embargo periods between publication and public access, allowing for some variation across fields of science. The report states: “an embargo period of between zero (for open access journals) and twelve months currently reflects such a balance for many science disciplines,” but notes for “other fields a longer embargo period may be necessary.”
The group also emphasized the need for the adoption of common standards to ensure searchability and collaboration across fields and databases and suggested that international cooperation on standards would also be critical. While there was not unanimity on the need for or type of legislation or other government action, members of the roundtable agreed that federal agencies should work together with the publishing community to ensure common core properties and a coherent framework for access and preservation across the government.
This endorsement represents a big step forward in the debate between factions who often disagree. Two members of the roundtable chose to submit their views regarding the appropriate role of government in delivering public access to scholarly publications.
Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) offered the following statement:
“The Committee on Science and Technology hosted a Scholarly Publishing Roundtable in June of 2009 to bring together key stakeholders from the academic and publishing communities. To allow a more frank and productive discussion, the Committee asked that Members come to the table with their deep expertise and their own viewpoints, but not as representatives of their home institutions or organizations.
I applaud this group for taking such a thoughtful approach to a difficult and divisive issue. After the group met at the event hosted by the Committee, the members of the roundtable volunteered to continue meeting on their own to produce a report that would be useful to Congress, the White House and the agencies.
I believe these recommendations strike a good balance by allowing public access to the results of research paid for with federal funds, while preserving the high quality and editorial integrity of scholarly publishing so critical to the scientists and seasoned science writers on whose expertise we all depend.
Our collective goal is to advance both scholarship and public access. I commend the members of this group for putting aside self interest to reach a compromise that will benefit us all.”
For more information, or to read the report or accompanying documents, please visit the Committee’s website.
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