Summary
NSCF Speakers and participants emphasised, while acknowledging significant progress to date, the need for an increased openness of access to publicly funded research findings, (notably in research data and publications). Maximising the economic and social benefits of research and enabling innovation, depends upon the effective distribution of research outputs.
Policy-frameworks and focussed research are needed, however, to progress beyond a simple advocacy of accessibility. There is a need to focus strategically on the full life cycle of scholarly communications (Houghton Report 2006). The benefits of increased access to Australia’s wide variety of research outputs can only be realised through structured and widely understood policies, practices and support systems.
A key issue to be addressed is examination of the issues arising in the Australian settings of embedding the cost of disseminating research outputs within the total cost of the research process. Further research is required, in this context, on the impact on traditional publishing models of ‘open’ initiatives.
Institutional policies and practices are largely out of step with, or ignorant of, the potential of wider accessibility frameworks. Institutions need to build curation of their scholarly publications and research data into information strategies to enable their research to be disseminated for the greatest possible impact.
Attention also needs to be paid within universities to make open access alternatives effective and easy to understand and use for authors. A crucial issue in this context is an understanding of intellectual property and copyright issues and implementation of coherent and supportive policies.
Increasing involvement with the academic community at the individual and disciplinary level is essential. Researchers need to be aware of the opportunities offered by new scholarly communication frameworks.
Research evaluation and funding conditions are primary points of leverage. There is need to ensure the RQF, and other evaluative measures, support and encourage, rather than hinder, more open research communication.
A ‘joined up’ and systematic national approach to facilitate cultural and institutional change should be enacted.National and organisational incentives, including tailored disciplinary advocacy programmes, need to be developed. Projects such as the Dutch Cream of Science initiative should be considered in Australia. Open Scholarship Australia or AusOpen Access would be counterpart titles of overseas nationally focussed initiatives.
Conclusion. Greater national collaboration and action is required by Government departments, universities, relevant industry sectors and Research Councils to ensure the effective implementation of open innovation and accessibility frameworks.
“The day certainly reinforced for me just how early in the information process we need to make changes to avoid impossible costs later.” Dr Rhys Francis
Biographies
Paul F. Uhlir, Director, International Scientific and Technical (S&T) Information Programs at The National Academies in Washington, D.C, and Director U.S. National Committee for CODATA
Paul Uhlir also directs the U.S. National Committee for CODATA. Paul's research focuses on issues at the interface of science, technology, and law, with primary focus on digital information policy and management. His current area of research is on S&T data management and policy, and on the relationship of intellectual property law in digital data and information to R&D policy.
Paul Uhlir in The Global Information Commons, noted that key stakeholders in the development of access policies included governments; research funding agencies; universities; not-for-profit research institutes; learned societies; international scientific organizations; industry research institutions; individual researchers; and the general public. He concluded there were compelling reasons for placing government-generated data and information in the public domain or under common-use conditions, citing the legal, socioeconomic, ethical and political benefits.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (232 KB)
Professor John M. Unsworth, Dean and Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
John Unsworth co-chaired the National Commission that produced the 2006 report on Cyberinfrastructure for Humanities and Social Science, on behalf of the American Council of Learned Societies, He has also published widely on the topic of electronic scholarship, as well as co-directing one of nine national partnerships in the Library of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program. John Unsworth is currently the Director of the Nora Project to create text-mining, pattern-recognition, and visualization software.
Prof. John Unsworth outlined the results of Our Cultural Commonwealth: the Report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, which he chaired. He emphasised that cyberinfrastructure is a strategic priority for the future of the humanities and social sciences. Coordination among representatives of universities, scholarly societies, national academies, and funding agencies was essential.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (3.1 MB)
Professor Warwick Anderson, CEO National Health and Medical Research Council.
Professor Warwick Anderson joined the NHMRC in June 2006 for a five-year term until 2011. He was Chair of the NHMRC's Research Committee for two three-year terms between 1997-2003. Professor Anderson's previous appointments included Head of School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University (2001 - 06) and prior to that, Deputy Director, of The Baker Institute. He has published over 150 scientific papers, primarily in the area of hypertension and renal physiology.
Dr Evan Arthur, Group Manager, Innovation and Research Systems, Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST)
Dr Evan Arthur is Group Manager of Innovation and Research Systems at the Department of Education, Science and Training. He is responsible for coordination of the Australian Government’s involvement in the use of information and communication technologies in education. He is also responsible for research policy issues in the higher education sector. He has a doctorate in the area of Stoic Philosophy.
Dr Evan Arthur in Australia's Research Quality Framework and Research Accessibility, focused on the drivers for accessibility of research and the technical and policy impediments. In relation to Government action, Dr Arthur outlined the implications in this context for individual researchers, the role of research councils, the establishment of technical and legal infrastructures and the role of the Accessibility Framework within the 2008 RQF’s collection of research output.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (96 KB)
Monika Binder, Director Productivity Commission
Monika Binder is a Research and Inquiry Manager with the Productivity Commission. She was a contributing member on the Commission’s recent research report ‘Public Support for Science and Innovation’.
Monika Binder, in Public Support for Science and Innovation outlined the relevant sections of the March 2007 Productivity Report of that title. In this report, the Commission took an economy-wide approach in addressing the economic impacts of public support for science and innovation and impediments to the functioning of Australia’s innovation system. While there still remain a number of impediments to improved access to publicly funded research, Binder concluded that government action to-date has been encouraging but further work was required by government agencies and research councils.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (172 KB)
Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Head Law School, Queensland University of Technology
Brian Fitzgerald specialises in Intellectual Property and Information Technology/Internet issues. He holds postgraduate degrees in law from Oxford and Harvard University. Brian is a Chief Investigator and Program Leader for Law in the ARC Centre of Excellence on Creative Industries and Innovation and Project Leader for the DEST funded Open Access to Knowledge Law Project – OAK Law Project, looking at legal protocols for open access to the Australian research sector.
Prof. Brian Fitzgerald summarised the two major DEST funded projects, The Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project and Legal Framework for e-Research. The former developed legal protocols for managing copyright issues in an OA environment, while the second builds the infrastructure for data access and re-use in collaborative research.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (908 KB)
Professor John Houghton, Professorial Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University
John Houghton is Professorial Fellow at Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (CSES) and Director of the Centre's Information Technologies and the Information Economy Program. John Houghton’ research is at the interface of theory and practice with a strong focus on the policy application of economic and social theory, and of leading-edge research in various relevant fields. Consequently, his contribution tends to be in bringing knowledge and research methods to bear on policy issues in an effort to raise the level of policy debate and improve policy outcomes.
John Houghton, in Research Communication in Australia: Emerging Opportunities and Benefits, (based on the report submitted to DEST of the same title, with Steele & Sheehan at http://dspace.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/44485) emphasised the new opportunities emerging for cost-effective and sustainable information access and dissemination. Detailed summary figures from Houghton indicated the potential impacts from increased open access for research communications. This study provides a framework for future policy research and detailed costings.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (664 KB)
Dr Richard Jefferson, CEO Cambia
Dr Richard Jefferson heads CAMBIA, an autonomous, not-for-profit international research organisation. Richard has given more than 300 invited seminars in over 35 countries. He is recognized as a pioneer in new democratised innovation and intellectual property mechanisms and the founder of the biological open-source movement.
Dr Richard Jefferson used the cartoon at http://www.cambia.org/daisy/cambia/3180 to launch a live internet presentation of the resources on the CAMBIA website. www.bios.net aims to democratise problem solving through decentralised innovation. www.patentlens.net is an innovative independent public good global resource for increasing patent transparency. Jefferson’s thoughts are also encapsulated in CambiaBiological open Source Developments - A Case Study for Science http://www.cambia.org/daisy/cambia/home.html
Frederick Friend, UK JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant
Frederick Friend was Library Director at University College London before moving into a role as Honorary Director Scholarly Communication, exploring new developments in information services. Fred is involved in many initiatives for JISC in the UK and for international organizations. He is one of the authors of the Budapest Open Access Initiative.
Frederick Friend emphasised Finding Gold in Europe: JISC, Research Councils and CERN, in which he outlined the models to fund “gold” OA publication charges as part of the research process and budget. He emphasised however that this should not in any way detract from the considerable development and support for “green” OA. JISC, for example, is devoting large resources to repository development. A key issue is to find sustainable models such as embedding the cost of disseminating research outputs within the total cost of the research process. Attention also needs to be paid to improving administrative arrangements within universities to make the model effective and easy to use for authors.
PowerPoint presentation available for download (152 KB)
Dr Rhys Francis, Executive Manager, eScience and Director, High Performance Scientific Computing, CSIRO and Interim Executive Director AeRIC.
The Australian e-Research Infrastructure Council (AeRIC), has been established by DEST to oversee the development of the Platforms for Collaboration investment by NCRIS. AeRIC will take into account direction on policy and investment intentions from the NCRIS Committee and act to ensure that world-class services and expertise are identified, developed and delivered nationwide in ways that support effective e-Research within and across all research disciplines.
Colin Steele, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University, Convenor NSCF
Colin Steele was University Librarian at the ANU from 1980 to 2002 and Director, Scholarly Information Strategies 2002 to 2003. He is the author/editor of seven books including three on scholarly communication change. He collaborated with John Houghton and Peter Sheehan on a 2006 report to DEST, “Research Communication Costs in Australia: Emerging Opportunities and Benefits”. )
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