Open Access in Biomedical Research

The European Science Foundation has released Open Access in Biomedical Research.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The ESF-EMRC Science Policy Briefing entitled 'Open Access in Biomedical Research' was instigated to examine whether there are new opportunities for open access in biomedical research within Europe that will benefit European biomedical researchers and European society as a whole. The report provides three key recommendations for the adoption of open access policy:

1. There is a moral imperative for open access
   Research papers should be made freely available to all to read, use and re-use, with appropriate acknowledgement, in order to maximise the value of biomedical research, build on the body of knowledge, accelerate the process of discovery and improve human health.
2. Individual agencies must work together to raise awareness of the moral imperative for open access
   Agencies and organisations that fund and perform research, libraries, publishers and researchers must work collectively to raise awareness of the moral imperative for open access publishing. Enhanced efforts towards national, European and international partnerships are the basis for the successful achievement of open access to research outputs.
3. All research stakeholders should work together in order to support the extension of Europe PubMed Central into a Europe-wide PubMed Central
   In order to facilitate discoveries and innovation in biomedical research, research stakeholders should collaborate to establish a Europe-wide repository in biomedicine as a partner site to the US equivalent PubMed Central. The recently rebranded Europe PubMed Central represents a valuable means to achieving this goal, provided that the diversity of European partner mandates and policies can be integrated.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals: This is an excellent resource for its extensive background documentation of the open access arguments and issues. — Ann Jensen, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, no. 43 (2005) | Digital Scholarship |