Follow up of EC-commissioned "Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe" (fwd)

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

     ** Apologies for Cross-Posting **

Below is the (so far still rather wishy-washy) synthesis of the 
responses to the European Commission's (EC's) research-access 
related recommendations.

One rather worrying thing is that the EC's February follow-up 
conference in Brussels looks as if it will consist largely of 
librarians and publishers, rather than the principal 
stakeholders, namely, the research community: researchers, their 
institutions, and their funders.

One hopes that the EC will not lose sight of the fact that 
researchers (and their institutions and funders) are both the 
*providers* of research and the *users* of research (in 
generating further research, as well as applications for the 
tax-paying public that funds the research).

Research is not done, or funded, in order to support the 
publishing industry.

And although librarians have their hearts in the right place, 
they are not the research-providers either, so all they can do it 
help implement what the researchers, their institutions and their 
funders elect to implement.

Recommendation A1 was for an Open Access Self-Archiving Mandate. 
That is a matter for the European Research Community to decide. 
Librarians can help. Publishers can either help, or they can 
adapt. But it would be a huge strategic mistake to let the 
publishing industry decide what the research community does in 
order to maximize the European tax-paying public's return on the 
euros it invests in supporting research. They are not in vesting 
in the publishing industry, and far, far more is at stake that 
the publishing industry's concerns about possible risks to its 
revenue streams.

Stevan Harnad

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 18:45:15 +0200
From: RTD-SCIENTIFIC-PUBLICATION@CEC.EU.INT
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Follow up of EC-commissioned "Study on the economic and technical
                 evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe"

Dear colleagues,

As some of you know, the European Commission's Research 
Directorate-General recently commissioned a "Study on the 
economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication 
markets in Europe" 
(http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-stu 
dy_en.pdf). This Study by the Universite libre de Bruxelles and 
the Universite des Sciences Sociales (Toulouse) was published in 
early 2006 and led to a public consultation, to which many of you 
contributed.

Today, I am happy to be able to inform you that the synthesis of 
the responses to the consultation and the individual 
contributions received are available online:

Synthesis of contributions: 
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/synthesis-consultation_en.pdf

Individual contributions:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/

The next steps planned by the European Commission are a 
Communication on scientific information issues (late 2006)and a 
conference to be held on 15-16 February 2007 in Brussels. Please 
check our pages on scientific publication over the next weeks for 
further information on these activities: 
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/page_en.cfm?id=3184

Best regards,

Celina Ramjoue
European Commission, Research Directorate-General
Science, Economy and Society Directorate - Governance and Ethics Unit
celina.ramjoue@ec.europa.eu