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she blinded me with science

The UK Pledges to Make All Publicly Funded Research Publicly Available With the Help of Wikipedia

by Susana Polo | 12:40 pm, May 3rd, 2012


The scientific community has been in a bit of a stir this year, ever since mathematician Tim Gowers wrote a post on his blog stating his intention sto abandon publishing his findings with any journal run by Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific publisher, citing the stranglehold a publisher that large can have on the world’s peer-reviewed scientific information, controlling not just how it’s published, but what it costs to read or even obtain a copy. One step in the right direction, according to many, is to create laws or programs that would ensure that all publicly funded scientific studies were eventually (or immediately) made publicly available.

Well, England’s Science Minister just struck decisive blow for what’s being called the Open Science movement, by promising just that.

With Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales in an advisory role to maintain “common standards,” “collaboration and engagement,” and Dame Janet Finch laying out a plan for implementation, the United Kingdom will be making sure that all research that receives government funding or grants from them will become available publicly. Said Science Minister David Willetts,

Giving people the right to roam freely over publicly funded research will usher in a new era of academic discovery and collaboration, and will put the UK at the forefront of open research.

The challenge is how we get there without ruining the value added by academic publishers. The controversy about the status and reliability of reviews on TripAdvisor is a reminder of how precious genuine, objective peer review is. We still need to pay for such functions, which is why one attractive model – known as gold – has the funders of research covering the costs. Another approach, known as green, includes a closed period before wider release during which journals can earn revenues.

Sounds like an interesting initiative, and as bloggers who like to talk about science every now and then, not coming up against a paywall and being able to look at the actual research instead of playing the familiar game of blogger telephone with the proper science is something we look forward to.

(via io9.)

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  • Erica Tomas

    This makes me very happy. The first step to making science accepted by the masses is to make is accessible. Even as a college alumni with some rights to my university’s extensive journal subscription, it can be very hard to actual find free or accessible journal articles and papers on new scientific discoveries.

    All in all, hooray for the U.K.!

  • http://www.youtube.com/cherubicwindigo Laura

    So freaking cool! I can’t wait to dig into some juicy research.

  • http://twitter.com/Ultrafem Lisa M. Hayes

    So many good thing happen when walls are knocked down. I’m glad there are governments who are learning that lesson!

  • Rose-Heather Mikhail

    This is great !

    UK Minister for Science (and Universities).
    We in England haven’t devolved our parliament yet ;)

  • Anonymous

    this is great news, and i wish them luck!  publishers like elsevier charge a fortune for access to their databases, and that eats up a significant portion of academic library budgets every year.  publicly funded research is paid for by your taxes, and you should have the right to access them for free. 

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  • http://shiftercat.livejournal.com/ ShifterCat

    Spambot!

  • http://shiftercat.livejournal.com/ ShifterCat

    I’m surprised you all didn’t use the female version of that Amorphia T-shirt design:  
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