[Irtalk] FW: [EIFL-OA] Major international associations join together to underscore their support for immediate open access to research articles

Thu May 15 14:20:27 SAST 2014

An excellent move indeed.

From: eifloa-bounces at lists.eifl.net [mailto:eifloa-bounces at lists.eifl.net] On Behalf Of Iryna Kuchma
Sent: 14 May 2014 04:22 PM
To: Smith, Ina <ismith at sun.ac.za>
Cc: EIFL - Open Access program announcement and discussion list
Subject: [EIFL-OA] Major international associations join together to underscore their support for immediate open access to research articles

Dear all,

EIF (Electronic Information for Libraries)<http://www.eifl.net> has joined other major international associations such as COAR<https://www.coar-repositories.org/> (Confederation of Open Access Repositories), LIBER<http://libereurope.eu/> (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche - Association of European Research Libraries), National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, <http://english.las.cas.cn/> OpenAIRE<https://www.openaire.eu/> (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) and SPARC<http://www.sparc.arl.org/> (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) to underscore our support for immediate Open Access to research articles.

As organizations committed to the principle that access to information advances discovery, accelerates innovation and improves education, we endorse  the policies and practices that enable Open Access - immediate, barrier free access to and reuse of scholarly articles.

Policies that promote Open Access are increasingly being adopted worldwide by research funders, academic institutions and national governments in order to improve the use and value of scholarly research.

We fully support such policies and the dual avenues for implementing them: open access repositories and open access journals. These policies play an important role in creating an environment where our collective investments in research can be maximized for the benefit of the public, and for society at large.

Many policies have employed the use of embargo periods - delayed access to research articles for a short period of time to help protect publishers’ subscription revenue as they shift to new business models.

We consider the use of embargo periods as an acceptable transitional mechanism to help facilitate a wholesale shift towards Open Access.

However, embargo periods dilute the benefits of open access policies and we believe that, if they are adopted, they should be no more than six months for the life and physical sciences, 12 months for social sciences and humanities.  We further believe that mechanisms for reducing - or eliminating - embargo periods should be included in any Open Access policy.

Any delay in the open availability of research articles curtails scientific progress and stifles innovation, and places unnecessary constraints in delivering the benefits of research back to the public.

Signatories

EIFL: Electronic Information for Libraries

COAR: Confederation of Open Access Repositories

LIBER: Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche - Association of European Research Libraries

National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences

OpenAIRE: Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe

SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition

Please feel free to distribute this statement to your colleagues, and to encourage other organizations who support this statement to become signatories to it as well. Organizations can add their support by visiting this website: https://www.coar-repositories.org/?p=3989

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this statement.

Best wishes,

Iryna

Iryna Kuchma
EIFL Open Access Programme Manager
iryna.kuchma at eifl.net<mailto:iryna.kuchma at eifl.net>
skype: iryna.kuchma
twitter: @irynakuchma
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