Re: Brisbane declaration on Open Access (fwd)

["Stevan Harnad" <amsciforum@gmail.com>]

The Brisbane Declaration at last puts some real practical policy 
content and substance into the Budapest/Bethesda/Berlin series. 
Please read what the Archivangelist of the Antipodes, Arthur 
Sale, one if its main architects, has to say about it. If this is 
implemented planet-wide, we have universal Open Access within a 
year. -- Stevan Harnad

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arthur Sale <ahjs -- ozemail.com.au>
Date: Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: Brisbane declaration on Open Access 
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@listserver.sigmaxi.org

...May I tease out a few strands of the Brisbane Declaration for 
readers of the list, as a person who was at the OAR Conference in 
Brisbane.

1.  The Declaration was adopted on the voices at the Conference, 
revised in line with comments, and then participants were asked 
to put their names to it post-conference. It represents an 
overwhelming consensus of the active members of the repository 
community in Australia.

2.  The Conference wanted a succinct statement that could be used 
to explain to senior university administrators, ministers, and 
the public as to what Australia should do about making its 
research accessible. It is not a policy, as it does not mention 
any of the exceptions and legalisms that are inevitably needed in 
a formal policy.

3.  The Conference wanted to support the two Australian Ministers 
with responsibility for Innovation, Science and Health in their 
moves to make open access mandatory for all Australian-funded 
research.

4.  Note in passing that the Declaration is not restricted to 
peer-reviewed articles, but looks forward to sharing of research 
data and knowledge (in the humanities and arts).

5.  At the same time, it was widely recognized that publishers' 
pdfs ("Versions of Record") were not the preferred version of an 
article to hold in a repository, primarily because a pdf is a 
print-based concept which loses a lot of convenience and 
information for harvesting, but also in recognition of the 
formatting work of journal editors (which should never change the 
essence of an article). The Declaration explicitly make it clear 
that it is the final draft ("Accepted Manuscript") which is 
preferred. The "Version of Record" remains the citable object.

6.  The Declaration also endorses author self-archiving of the 
final draft at the time of acceptance, implying the ID/OA policy 
(Immediate Deposit, OA when possible).

While the Brisbane Declaration is aimed squarely at Australian 
research, I believe that it offers a model for other countries. 
It does not talk in pieties, but in terms of action. It is 
capable of implementation in one year throughout Australia. Point 
1 is written so as to include citizens from anywhere in the 
world, in the hope of reciprocity. The only important thing 
missing is a timescale, and that's because we believe Australia 
stands at a cusp..

What are the chances of a matching declaration in other 
countries?

Arthur Sale
University of Tasmania

==============================================================

Following the conference on Open Access and Research held in September
in Australia, and hosted by Queensland University of Technology, the
following statement was developed and has the endorsement of over
sixty participants.

Brisbane Declaration

Preamble

The participants recognise Open Access as a strategic enabling
activity, on which research and inquiry will rely at international,
national, university, group and individual levels.

Strategies

Therefore the participants resolve the following as a summary of the
basic strategies that Australia must adopt:

1        Every citizen should have free open access to publicly funded
research, data and knowledge.

2        Every Australian university should have access to a digital
repository to store its research outputs for this purpose.

3        As a minimum, this repository should contain all materials
reported in the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC).

4        The deposit of materials should take place as soon as
possible, and in the case of published research articles should be of
the author's final draft at the time of acceptance so as to maximize
open access to the material.

Brisbane, September, 2008