A letter from the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development to recent
research appointees to the Obama administration: Professor John Holdren,
Professor Harold Varmus, Professor Jane Lubchenko, Professor Stevan Chu.
Dear Professors,
It is with great pleasure that we note your recent appointments in the
new
The resolution, through science, of urgent global problems is a priority
for the safety and economic progress of all nations, yet cannot be achieved by
any country in isolation. We write to you, therefore, to urge you to ensure
that access to publicly funded research is free to all potential users,
particularly to those in low economy regions where the costs of commercial
journals are prohibitive, yet where the problems are most severely felt. Without
an international perspective on disease control, climate change and other
global problems, there will always be limited success, since scientific
knowledge in the developing world is a crucial element to the implementation of
appropriate and sustainable solutions.
The
international movement towards the twin approaches to achieving free and open
access to research findings2 – open access
institutional repositories (current total 1239)3 holding
deposits of published, peer-reviewed articles, plus open access
peer-reviewed journals (current total 3812)4 – is already
well established. These collectively provide open access to several
million refereed published research articles. Additionally, there are now
31 open access mandates from universities and research institutions requiring
the deposit of their own research article output, whether institutionally or
externally funded, in their own institutional repositories, as well as 30 open
access mandates from major research funding organisations5 requiring
the deposit of articles arising from their financial support.
As measurement tools become established, the usage of such material is
now seen to be spectacularly high, indicating the very real need for access to
research previously locked in high-priced journals, accessible only to those
able to afford them.
It remains of great importance, now that the groundwork is laid, that
these developments are supported and extended to all research in every discipline.
Already the NIH Open Access mandate exists, together with other mandates in the
We write in the hope that you
will be able to use your good offices to ensure the adoption of Open Access
policies by all federal agencies, thus encouraging further equivalent
policy adoptions throughout the world. Environmental protection, the cure and
treatment of malaria, HIV/AIDS, the containment of emerging new infectious
diseases, the conservation of biodiversity and energy are all urgent issues
particularly affecting the low economy regions. They cannot be solved without
international scientific cooperation, depending as it must on free and open
access to research publications.
We wish you much success in
your new appointment and urge that the wider needs of the developing world will
be high on your list of priorities. Open Access to research findings by
mandated deposit in Institutional Repositories is a very low cost and
achievable aim with disproportionately large benefits.
With our good wishes for 2009
and your future work,
Sincerely yours,
Barbara Kirsop,
Secretary/Trustee,
On behalf of Trustees of
the
Electronic Publishing Trust for
Development