UK Department for International Development, This is Open Access Week, press release, October 19, 2009.
... DFID-funded research is publicly funded and essentially constitutes a global public good. DFID supports Open Access as a core component of its research commitment to ensure that research knowledge can be accessed, built
upon and used in support of the objectives of the DFID Research Strategy. Research for Development (R4D) is an Open Access digital portal for DFID-funded research and DFID expects the research programmes it funds to make full use of the R4D repository. For more information, see the Research Programme Consortia: Guidance Note on Open Access.
A recent scoping study has looked at how DFID Research can develop an open access policy that will lead to greater public access to the research outputs it finances. Read the report 'Towards a DFID Research Policy on Open Access' and see the presentation based upon this report.
... DFID recognises the immense benefits that scientific and social science
knowledge can have in addressing poverty, and expects the research it funds to
benefit researchers, policy makers and others globally, but in particular in developing
countries. DFID recognises that Southern researchers, governments and civil society
need better access to global public goods research to enable them to build upon and
use this knowledge. ...
DFID will develop an Open Access policy with which DFID funded research
programmes will be expected to comply in due course. ...
Ideally, all DFID funded research outputs should be Open Access, meaning that that
the full text of any articles and technical reports resulting from DFID funding that are
published in journals, conference proceedings or as working papers, whether during
or after the funding period, should be deposited, at the earliest opportunity, in an
appropriate Open Access repository, and also with DFID’s R4D, subject to
compliance with publisher's copyright and licensing policies. Wherever possible, the
article deposited should be the published version.
DFID will also encourage its research programmes to archive quantitative and
qualitative primary data sets, resulting from the research it funds, with appropriate
data archiving repositories. ...
The DFID Research Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation Framework includes
indicators and scoring criteria against type of publications, which will include
scores for Open Access publishing. ...
Take a broad ‘open knowledge’ perspective. It is about more than journal articles.
In general:
Require systematic deposit of outputs and metadata in open archiving systems and repositories, including in a ‘UKPubDev Central.’ ...
Encourage use of ‘open licenses’ that recognize authorship and enable reuse. ...
For different categories of outputs:
Encourage publication in open access journals (or hybrid journals).
Provide funds for any open access charges. ...
Require that projects develop a data curation and accessibility plan. ...
In addition:
Adapt DFID research contracts to mandate these provisions.
Require each funding proposal to present an ‘accessibility plan’ or framework.
Include funds for open access in proposed budgets. ...
Support preferential access initiatives for developing countries.
Support open access journal publishing initiatives in developing countries.
Contribute to awareness raising efforts that explain open access and how it helps DFID and its partners achieve their scientific and developmental goals.
Engage other research funders. ...
Also see OpenR4DFID, a wiki with more information on the study.
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.
