Annexes to COM(2012)401 - Towards better access to scientific information: Boosting the benefits of public investments in research - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2012)401 - Towards better access to scientific information: Boosting the benefits of public investments in research. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2012)401  |
| date | July 17, 2012 |
5.2. Barriers hindering access to, use and re-use of research data
The lack of organisation and clarity about responsibilities in improving access to and use of scientific data are major barriers to change. E-infrastructures and thematic data infrastructures for storing and providing access to data are now rapidly emerging worldwide, but the financing models to ensure long-term access are often lacking. In addition, interoperability among countries and disciplines remains an issue.
Many researchers and innovative enterprises are reluctant to share what they perceive to be ‘their’ data and are concerned that others will unfairly benefit from their efforts. Researchers, moreover, may not want to invest time in the practicalities of depositing their data.[27] Systematic reward and recognition mechanisms for data sharing, such as citation mechanisms and measurements of the data citation impact, are not yet in place.[28]
5.3. Barriers to long-term preservation
The lack of financial and organisational models is a major problem in this area. Often preservation support structures are created for specific projects, limiting funding to a certain period. Funding is short-lived, fragmented and does not provide long-term solutions.
The technical challenges of preserving large volumes of data remain unsolved, in particular in fields such as astronomy and earth sciences that study constantly changing conditions.
National rules and practices for legally-required data depositing are now being adapted to include digital material, but exactly what material is covered and how, differs from one EU Member State to another. The 2011 Commission Recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation[29] points to specific areas to be addressed.
6. Action at European level
6.1. What has the Commission done so far?
6.1.1. Developing policy
If Europe is to reap the benefits of wider access to scientific research results, clear policies are needed — both national and European. The 2007 Council Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age set out a range of Member State measures with target dates, but progress has been uneven[30]. An updated set of actions to improve access to and preservation of scientific information should therefore be recommended to the Member States.
6.1.2. Implementing open access in Community research funding
As a major research funding body, the Commission has led by example by imposing certain conditions on the beneficiaries of its research grants. Following its 2007 Communication on scientific information in the digital age the Commission set up a pilot scheme for open access to publications resulting from projects under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).[31] Launched in 2008, this scheme covers 20 % of the FP7 budget and spans several thematic areas. Grant recipients are required to self-archive and to make their best effort to ensure open access to articles within six or twelve months after publication, depending on the research area. This requirement relates to articles, but not to underlying data.[32]
A May 2011 survey[33] of projects covered by the pilot scheme showed that most respondents found self-archiving easy or very easy in terms of manpower and time. Three quarters of the respondents expressing an opinion agreed or strongly agreed with an open access mandate for data in their research area, provided that all relevant aspects (e.g. ethics, confidentiality, intellectual property) are considered and addressed.
6.1.3. Ensuring EU-wide interoperability
In recent years, the Commission has supported the development of e-infrastructures for science, including scientific data infrastructures, measures to make national infrastructures more interoperable, and the preparatory phases for the setting up of sustainable European thematic data infrastructures identified in the ESFRI[34] Roadmap. Since the beginning of FP7 the Commission has committed over € 150 million to infrastructure initiatives. A central project in this context is OpenAIRE[35], an e-infrastructure to deposit and access peer-reviewed articles and datasets resulting from EU-funded projects.
6.2. What are the next steps?
6.2.1. Working with the Member States
In parallel with this Communication, the Commission has adopted a Recommendation to the Member States on access to and preservation of scientific information. The Commission will work with national points of reference, designated by each Member State, to draw up common principles and standards.
6.2.2. Leading by example: Open access in Horizon 2020
In Horizon 2020, both the ‘Green’ and ‘Gold’ models are considered valid approaches to achieve open access. All projects will be requested to immediately deposit an electronic version of their publications (final version or peer-reviewed manuscript) into an archive in a machine-readable format. This can be done using the ‘Gold’ model (open access to published version is immediate), or the ‘Green’ model. In this case, the Commission will allow an embargo period of a maximum of six months, except for the social sciences and humanities where the maximum will be twelve months (due to publications’ longer ‘half-life’)[36].
The eligibility of ‘Gold’ open access publishing costs will be maintained in Horizon 2020. The Commission will also consider whether and under what conditions open access publication fees can be reimbursed after the end of the grant agreement.
The Commission encourages authors to retain their copyright and to grant licences to publishers, according to the rules applying in Member States.
In addition, the Commission will to set up a pilot scheme on open access to and re-use of research data generated by projects in selected areas of Horizon 2020. The Commission will also encourage, where appropriate, the publication of software codes used to produce or process the data. In designing and implementing the pilot the Commission will take into account possible constraints on making research data openly accessible which may pertain to privacy, national security or data, and know-how and knowledge brought into projects as inputs. Generally, the pilot scheme will not apply to projects whose primary aim would be contradicted by making research data accessible.
Online access to scientific information resulting from EU-funded projects will be further improved, building on the OpenAIRE infrastructure and its National Open Access Desks.
Guidance will be given to researchers and academic institutions on how to comply with the requirement to provide open access.
As set out in the Open Data Communication, the Commission will start operating an e-infrastructure that will make the Commission’s own publications and research data as well as those of other European institutions and agencies easily accessible and usable. In parallel, metadata definitions with high re-use potential will be identified and promoted.
6.2.3. Working with the stakeholder community
The European Commission will continue its dialogue with and monitor the impact of its open access policies on all stakeholder groups interested in open access to publications and data as well as digital preservation. These stakeholders include academic institutions, research centres and their libraries, scientific publishers, enterprises including SMEs, researchers, policy-makers and governments, citizens’ organisations, and NGOs.
6.2.4. Funding infrastructures and relevant projects for responsible research and innovation
The European Commission will continue to fund projects related to open access. In 2012-2013, the Commission will spend € 45 million on data infrastructures[37] and research on digital preservation. Funding will continue under the Horizon 2020 programme.[38]
During the same period, the Commission will support experimentation with new ways of handling scientific information (e.g. new peer-review methods and ways of measuring article impact).
6.2.5. Coordination beyond the EU
Beyond the EU, the Commission will continue working with its international partners and scientific communities to promote open access. EU action on open access can inspire third countries and third country stakeholders to develop their own policies. A specific area in which EC policy will benefit the global scientific community is interoperability and sustainability of data infrastructures.[39]
7. Conclusion
Wide, fair, sustainable and easy access to publicly-funded scientific information and its sustainable preservation for re-use can make a significant contribution to Europe’s economic growth and help it address the societal challenges of the 21st century.
In this Communication, the Commission sets out measures to ensure that the results of Europe’s publicly-funded research are fully accessible for researchers, businesses and citizens. Some of these measures need to be implemented by Member States, while others will be carried out by the Commission.
The Commission invites the European Parliament and the Council to show their support for the objective of open access to scientific information by playing their part in adopting the necessary policies and in supporting the planned projects and infrastructures.
Access to and preservation of scientific information: key measures
Policy measures
– Recommendation to the Member States on access to and preservation of scientific information, 2012.
– Work with national points of reference designated by Member States to draw up common principles and standards, from 2013.
– Work with national points of reference to structure and monitor progress on access and dissemination, from 2013.
Open access to results of EU-funded research
– Establish open access to scientific publications as a general principle in the Horizon 2020 programme and set up the conditions for optimal compliance, from 2014.
– Maintain the possibility of reimbursing open access publishing fees as part of the Horizon 2020 programme, from 2014.
– Provide a framework and encourage open access to research data in Horizon 2020, taking into account any restrictions that may be needed in order to protect intellectual property or legitimate commercial interests, from 2014.
Funding for infrastructures and projects
– Continue funding relevant projects in Horizon 2020, from 2014.
– Provide €45 million for infrastructures supporting open access to research articles and data, and for research on digital preservation, 2012-2013.
Coordination beyond the EU
– Promote open access policies and the interoperability of data infrastructures with international partners.
Targets:
– By 2014, policies for open access to scientific articles and data will have been established in all Member States at all relevant levels.
– By 2016, the share of publicly-funded scientific articles available under open access EU-wide will have increased from 20 % to 60 %.
– 100 % of scientific publications resulting from Horizon 2020 will be available under open access.
[1] COM(2010) 245 final/2.
[2] See ‘open data’ package adopted on 12 December 2011, COM(2011) 882.
[3] COM(2010) 546 final.
[4] COM(2007) 56 final.
[5] COM(2009) 108 final.
[6] Conclusions of the European Council of 20 May 2008, Doc. no. 7652/1/08.
[7] http://www.fi.dk/publikationer/2011/adgang-til-forskningsresultater-og-teknisk-information-i-danmark.
[8] See Sutcliffe, ‘A report on Responsible Research and Innovation’.
[9] See ‘Riding the Wave: How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data’, High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data, October 2010.
[10] Communication of the Commission ‘ICT infrastructures for e-Science’ of 5.3.2009, COM(2009) 108 final.
[11] Patenting is an effective way of disseminating knowledge in open access mode.
[12] http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arlstat09.pdf.
[13] This model allows for certain variations. The length of the embargo period and the version that may be archived at different moments in time vary, e.g. depending on the agreements between publishers and authors. Online repositories are managed either by academic institutions or funding bodies, or organised so as to cover specific subjects.
[14] See the ROARMAP register: http://roarmap.eprints.org/.
[15] Some 57 % of publishers’ default policies allow self-archiving of the accepted manuscript, see http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.
[16] Björk et al., Open Access to Scientific Journal Literature: Situation 2009, available on www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011273.
[17] ‘Permanent access to the records of science’ project, co-funded by the EU under FP7, www.parse-insight.eu.
[18] http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/279/2/JISC_data_sharing_finalreport.pdf.
[19] Commission staff working paper accompanying the Communication of the Commission on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation, SEC(2011) 1274 final.
[20] http://roarmap.eprints.org/.
[21] http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/allea_declaration.pdf.
[22] http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/61/38500813.pdf. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002158/215863e.pdf.
[23] See the COPE fund, http://www.oacompact.org/.
[24] See the ‘Sponsoring consortium for open access publishing in particle physics’, www.scoap3.org.
[25] See the report ‘PEER Behavioural Research: Authors and Users vis-à-vis Journals and Repositories, final report’, p. 51 et seq., available on: www.peerproject.eu.
[26] See the PEER report, precit., at p. VI.
[27] Report ‘To share or not to share: Publication and Quality Assurance of Research Data Outputs’, available on: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk.
[28] There are some initiatives emerging such as datacite.org.
[29] Recommendation of 27.10.2011, C(2011) 7579 final.
[30] See the report ‘National Open Access and Preservation policies in Europe, 2011, http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/open-access-report-2011_en.pdf.
[31] Open Access Pilot in FP7; http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topic&id=1300&lang=1 .
[32] However, the European Research Council (ERC) considers it essential that data underlying peer-reviewed publications are deposited immediately after publication and in any case not later than 6 months after the date of publication (ERC Scientific Council Statement on Open Access).
[33] Survey on open access in FP7; http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/survey-on-open-access-in-fp7_en.pdf
[34] European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (http://ec.europa.eu/research/infrastructures/index_en.cfm?pg=esfri)
[35] Funded by FP7, http://www.openaire.eu/.
[36] The maximum embargo periods will be laid down in the model grant agreement for Horizon 2020. The Commission will monitor and evaluate their implementation as part of the overall open access policy and review them in case of specific problems, in particular with regard to the social sciences and humanities.
[37] These infrastructures are publicly funded and provided for non-economic activities such as pure dissemination of knowledge.
[38] See EC proposal for Horizon 2020 Specific programme (COM(2011)811 final). This is subject to the adoption of the Horizon 2020 legal basis and without prejudice of the final decision on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.
[39] See also the forthcoming Communication ‘Enhancing and focussing European international cooperation in research and innovation: A strategic approach’.