Open Access News

Complex changes in data production, distribution and archiving--and issues they raise regarding who pays for data, who preserves it and who has access to it--should prompt an international initiative that ensures current and future scientists worldwide will have the information they need, according to a new report on challenges to data management and access presented today to the International Council for Science (ICSU). The report--written by an expert panel appointed by ICSU -- was formally presented today at the ICSU 28th General Assembly in Suzhou, China. It calls for establishing an international scientific data and information forum to promote a more coordinated approach to data collection and distribution. Such a forum could also play a key role in ensuring that scientists in developing countries have equitable access to scientific data and information....[According to Roberta Balstad, director of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network and chair of the ICSU Priority Area Assessment (PAA) on Data and Information:] "For example, we don't always have the necessary legal and regulatory frameworks in place to get the full benefit of scientific data. We lack a coherent approach to preserving and archiving the incredible wealth of information being produced. And the more the access to long-term reservoirs of data becomes central to the modern scientific enterprise, the more it exacerbates inequities between scientists in rich and poor nations."...The panel examined a range of issues that affect data generation, quality and access. For example, its report notes that while public sector funding of data collection has been "a major factor" driving scientific progress over the past 50 years, decisions regarding data are often fragmented and taken without consultation with the scientific community. The result in "extreme cases" can be actions driven by political, administrative or budgetary factors that do damage to scientifically valuable data series. Meanwhile, the panel cautions that as the private sector plays a greater role in amassing and disseminating data, there is a risk that market demand, not scientific priorities, will determine what is collected and preserved and who has access. The panel notes that commercial interest in data collections can lead to license and user fees and intellectual property claims on data that become impediments to research. The report recommends that data produced commercially or through public-private partnership be provided for research and education purposes either free or at nominal cost. Price and other access barriers to scientific data weigh most heavily on researchers in poor countries...."A major problem for scientists in low-income countries is their lack of access to scientific publications, both as a means of learning about research in other parts of the world and as an outlet for their own research results," the report observes. Scientists are frequently charged not only to view but also to publish articles.

(PS: The press release doesn't link to the report it discusses, and the closest thing I can find at the ICSU web site is this report from December 2004. Note to ICSU: Can you make life easier for readers who want to learn what you're doing?)