UK Parliament issues report on Open Access to Scientific Information
The Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology released PostNote 397 concerning recommendations to promote wider sharing of research information. It identifies challengesas well as benefits to providing OA to publications and research data, highlights cross-cutting issues, and delivers such recommendations as:
- Open Access (OA) to scientific publications could provide more effective dissemination of research and thus increase its impact.
- The costs and benefits of different models of providing OA to publications need to be considered if a comprehensive shift to OA is to be financially sustainable.
- OA to research data could enable others to validate findings and re-use data to advanceknowledge and promote innovation.
- Sharing data openly requires effective data management and archiving. It also presents challenges relating to protecting intellectual property and privacy.
- Expanding access to scientific information requires researchers, librarians, higher education institutions, funding agencies and publishers, to continue to work together.
The full report is available here.
