On 2012-05-07, at 10:30 AM, Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
> On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 2:54 PM, Stevan Harnad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> SH:
>> 4. DATA. What about authors who do not wish to make their research
>> data freely accessible to all immediately, having gathered it for the
>> purpose of analyzing and data-mining it themselves? Would it not be
>> a better idea for the time being to merely recommend rather than
>> require that data be made OA as soon as possible, rather than risk
>> resistance from authors who are happy to give away their journal articles
>> but not their data?
>
> PM-R:
> Data are critical to modern science and I strongly support those who
> require (mandate) that they be published. Authors are resistant to
> a lot of things - that doesn't condone their behaviour
I agree that data are critical to modern science and that they
ought to be published. But when? There are many fields of
science where the science is not the data-gathering itself
but the data-analysis. The amount of time that a researcher
would need to have a fair chance at first exploration rights
with the data he himself has gathered (with public funding).
Hence there is no straightforward counterpart to the kind of
immediate-OA mandate that is optimal for research articles.
Every field and every study would require some negotiation
about what is a fair period for the data-gatherer to have
first-exploitation rights.
(By the same token, research reported in books would be
very helpful if made OA. But there too, a blanket mandate
simply would not fit all. For both books and data, OA
mandates would not only generate resistance, but they
could even discourage doing the research in the first
place.)
Moral: Don't over-generalise from your own niche. Think,
and do some research, to see whether indeed the one
size that you think fits your particular case, fits all.
For mandating immediate Gratis Green OA to peer-reviewed
research articles, one size does fit all.
But for books, data, Libre OA, Gold OA -- more thought
is needed, lest co-bundling them all together
strangles the baby in the bathwater.
Stevan Harnad
|