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Scientific and technical health Scientific and technical health information as a public good: information as a public good: equitable access, ownership equitable access, ownership and copyrightand copyright
Hooman Momen
Editor
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
BackgroundBackground
Dissatisfaction with traditional academic publishing – Increasing prices– Benefits not equally shared among authors,
readers and publishers Challenges posed by internet and
electronic publishing– On-line vision– Financial sustainability
The On-line VisionThe On-line Vision
Problems– Increasing
submissions– Higher prices– Falling subscriptions
Result– Less access due to
higher prices causing vicious circle
Internet solution– Unlimited space– Lower costs
• printing• distribution
– Free or low price for user
Result– More material more
widely available
Financial sustainabilityFinancial sustainability
Cost of acquiring new information technology
Financing editorial costs which remain the same (e.g. peer review)
Savings from print are limited– print often still required by reader’s
Threat to revenue from free web-site Unstable technological environment
Arguments against Free AccessArguments against Free Access
Publishers add value to scientific information – peer review, editing, dissemination
– need to be paid
Private sector more efficient than public sector
Morally, nothing wrong in taking public information adding value to it and then reselling– A basic principle of free enterprise
Arguments for Free AccessArguments for Free Access
Scientific information is in general funded by public money and should be publicly available
Authors, referees and many editors do not receive payment. Why should publishers make so much profit?
Copyright should benefit authors and not publishers
Information should be available to all who need it independently of ability to pay.
Other Advantages of Free AccessOther Advantages of Free Access
Wide dissemination of resultsFavours information sharing and
faster distributionOptimizes research communication
among the scientific communityScientific information should be
considered as a “public good”.
Public Goods - DefinitionPublic Goods - Definition
Adam Smith noted the existence of certain products "which though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society are, however, of such a nature that the profits could never repay the expenses to any individual ..., and which it therefore cannot be expected that any individual … should erect."
Public Goods - AttributesPublic Goods - Attributes
Attributes of public goods: – once they are provided no-one can readily be
excluded from their consumption, – one person’s consumption doesn’t prevent
anyone else from consuming them. These attributes mean
– often a lack of incentive to produce these goods.
– the central issue of concern becomes one of ensuring action in the collective interest.
Scientific information as a Public Scientific information as a Public GoodGood Scientific and technical information in the
health field can be considered – to be an archetypal public good. – It should be freely available for all to benefit.
However often significant costs associated with– production, quality control, dissemination and
preservation
Due to international nature– Global public good
CopyrightCopyright
Promotion of learning– Academic / scholarly objective– “To promote the progress of science and
the useful arts” U.S. Constitution, art. 1
– The “fair use” provisionIntellectual property rights
– Commodification of information– Commercial objective
• Every view should carry a fee
Ownership of CopyrightOwnership of Copyright
Protection begins at the moment of creation– Unlike patents it is not applied for
Granted normally to author – but for employee can be granted to employer
“work-for-hire”
Is not one right but a bundle of rights– distribution, duplication, derivation, moral rights,
performing rights etc.
– Control of specific rights more important than ownership
Functions of copyrightFunctions of copyright
Two distinct functions in Journals– a) Theft of text– b) Theft of authorship
Authors of journal articles are not concerned about a)– In fact it is often against their interests
Authors are very concerned about b)
Reader’s InterestsReader’s Interests
Access– Cheap (affordable)– Barrier free/ fast
Relevant to needs and interestsAbility to browse and searchQuality and authorityConvenience
– need to be able to find what they want
Author’s InterestsAuthor’s Interests
Peer review– rigorous & transparent
Good editing Rapid publication Author friendly copyright
– All use is fair use– Retain integrity / avoid misappropriation
Impact– indicators / wide readership
Public InterestPublic Interest
Free accessQuality informationIntegrity of the process
– rights respected, including authors, readers, publishers
Reliable conservation– future access to knowledge
Open AccessOpen Access
Different modelsCost of publishing borne by provider
– institution, funding agency, author etc.Access to information
– not limited by users ability to payAuthor retains copyrightUsers can freely access, download and
print articles
Open Archives Initiative (OAI)Open Archives Initiative (OAI)
For publishers and editors to obtain– increased coverage, exposure and readership
Open refers to the facts that– protocol openly documented– metadata exposed for harvesting
Archives really mean repository– documents or other resources
Division between data providers and service providers
Self ArchivingSelf Archiving
Authors ‘self-archive’ their papers – either available on their own web sites
– or an institutional repository
– or a subject-based ‘archive’
This will increase the visibility and impact of research
Speed up the scholarly communication process.
Further considerationsFurther considerations
Will the internet remain affordable ?Importance of metadata?Search engines and Portals?DigitalisationChallenges of non-text items
MetadataMetadata
Increasing importance– Determines the use of the information
Standardisation– Who will impose standards?– How will standards be imposed?– Will authors stick to the rules?– Who will be responsible for quality
control?
Search engines and PortalsSearch engines and Portals
A post-Google / post-Gutenberg information environment
Internet Archives store billions of Web pages Difficulty in locating a specified item of information
– precisely and instantly among the mass of information available on the Web
In the electronic environment the de facto interfaces to information are– Search engines and Portals
– rather than the fragmented packages that have migrated from the print world.
Challenges of non-text itemsChallenges of non-text items
Integration of text and non-text items– genome sequences, crystallographic data, software
tools, statistical data, etc. Will articles remain 2 dimensional ?
– 3D, audio, video, databases
Peer review of non-text items Indices Divergence between disciplines
– each subject area will increasingly rely on a broader variety of digitized data
More radical scenariosMore radical scenarios
The end of Journals?– Do we need journals in the post-
Gutenberg age? The deconstructed journal E- science
– Scientific communication versus scientific publication
The Deconstructed JournalThe Deconstructed Journal
Authors self archive manuscriptsInform peer - review body
– Scientific society, National academy, For-profit entity, NGO, Foundation etc
After peer review inform relevant portals– location ( seamless links )– peer review status
E-scienceE-science
E-science - Publish on internet daily– experimental data– metadata– assumptions– analyses
Allow other scientists– check results– re-analyse, annotate, comment
Future of Academic publishingFuture of Academic publishing
Commercial publishers have proven and efficient structures
Millions of pages of contentWell fundedStrong basis for use of new
technologies to provide new services
Semi-open/ Equitable access?Semi-open/ Equitable access?
Consortia and licensing deals– Libraries for institutions– Societies for members– Third parties for other individuals
Flexible pricing– Free archives– Free access for developing countries
• HINARI project
– Differential pricing by size of institution
A possible partnershipA possible partnership
Most journal articles appeal to few scientists
Ratio of articles which generate a large amount of interest is small– Low interest articles still cost the same
to produce as the more interesting articles do.
Partnership of open access and commercial publishers
A solution for developing A solution for developing countriescountries Lack of publishing infrastructure
– advantage Option of making their material available for all to
use and access– SciELO
International treaty on “free trade” in scientific and technological information– Global public goods
Need to resolve problem of Digital Divide
I