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 (fwd)
To: [log in to unmask]
...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
