[Open-access] new open access initiative

Sat Jan 28 13:39:58 UTC 2012

Hi to all,

I would like to start my postings to this list with my view on the need for
a new OA initiative: purposes tasks, possibilities, branding and other
topics. I want to stress that all this is open for discussion and
represents my personal view.

The main reason for founding a new open access initiative is that the OA
movement is too fragmented to be effective. Equally important is the fact
that the term Open Access is used by many with quite different meanings: we
need to reclaim the term  Open Access to mean exclusively  Open access
according to the definition of the Budapest Convention, as we have
discussed by previously.

Therefore II like to propose as a first task for the new initiative
establishing a logo or badge for Open Access: we can give publishers /
authors the rights to use our OpenAccess Logo/Badge ( as proposed by Mike
Taylor in the preceding discussion) as certified proof for Open Access for
given articles.  Establishing ourselves as a certifying organization could
perhaps serve to generate some modest funding.

To promote open access publishing and draw media attention we will need a
name , a Logo and a “special” product. The product could be an Open Access
Index for access to disease information. We can start making and publishing
an Open Access Index for Malaria with other diseases following suite. In
parallel with the development of an Open Access to [disease X] information
Index we can develop ORR’s for the disease. At a later stage we could add
the Open Access Publisher Index described in the documents form the Dutch
Malaria Foudation. For a name I suggest that we use Open Access Foundation
initiative, in anticipation of the founding of an Open Access Foundation
(see below).

At the same time we should commit ourselves to the building of a community
of [Disease X] stakeholders (researchers, patient groups and others) and
offer them a platform for social interaction (discussion, collaboration).
For this we could (for instance) copy the ResearchGate model. In addition
we can encourage researchers to deposit their papers with us (as
ResearchGate users do on their platform). Proceeding in this direction we
will hopefully find ourselves hosting a number of Circles (of disease
interest) and indexed open access publications. I am convinced that Open
Access and community building are both indispensible ingredients for an
Open Science Society ( see e.g. my
blog<http://www.malariaworld.org/blog/open-science-communities-and-evolution-open-knowledge-society>).

At that stage, or already after establishing  one Circle (malaria) we could
transform into an Open Access Foundation which acts as Open Access
watchdog, certifying body for Open Access publications  and social media
platform for the building of Circles (communities) of malaria researchers +
other groups, cancer researchers + others, Lyme disease + others etc.
(modeled on the ResearchGate community). For this to work we should also
invest in the development and improvement of tools for easy access to
information and tools for social networking.
Where do publishers fit into this scheme. Ideally publishers should be
influenced by the Indices of the Foundation to move towards open access
business models. This could mean that scientific publishers transform into
service providers ( see Cameron Neylon‘s blog) offering information
storage, ways of easy access to information, platforms for collaboration
etc. , what one could call evolution towards a publishing 2.0 business
model replacing the anachronistic publishing model that many scientific
publishers continue to use today.
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