Linguists are calling for an online public database, similar to the human genome project, that would allow researchers to collaboratively share different studies of language impairment.
By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language.
Such a database might also help treat language disorders or help people learn foreign tongues, they say....
Research has been piecemeal until now, so [Gary Marcus of New York University] and graduate student Hugh Rabagliati are calling for experts to create a database collecting key data on developmental disorders and how they affect, or do not affect, cognitive and linguistic abilities. They outline their proposal, which has similarities to the collaborative nature of the human genome project, in the journal Nature Neuroscience....
PS: In the Nature Neurosciencearticle, Marcus and Rabagliati are explicit that the database they envision ought to be OA.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/27/2006 12:10:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
