[open-science] Fwd: Scientists for open data and authors of Panton Principles named SPARC Innovators

Tue Jun 22 18:38:38 UTC 2010

Big congrats to all involved in the creating, supporting and endorsing
the Panton Principles! ;-)

  http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/panton.shtml

Fantastic news!

Jonathan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jennifer McLennan <jennifer at arl.org>
Date: Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 7:41 PM
Subject: [SPARC-OpenData] Scientists for open data and authors of
Panton Principles named SPARC Innovators
To: SPARC-OpenData <SPARC-OpenData at arl.org>

For Immediate Release
June 22, 2010

For more information, contact:

Jennifer McLennan
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
(202) 296-2296 ext 121

Scientists for open data and authors of Panton Principles named SPARC Innovators

Washington, DC – Science is based on building on, reusing, and openly
criticizing the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to
effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from
scientific endeavors, it is crucial that science data be made open.

That’s the belief of four leaders who have put forth a groundbreaking
set of recommendations for scientists to more easily share their data
– The Panton Principles – and who have been named the latest SPARC
Innovators for their work.

The authors of The Panton Principles are:

•       Peter Murray-Rust, chemist at the University of Cambridge;
•       Cameron Neylon, biochemist at the Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory in Didcot, England;
•       Rufus Pollock, co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation and
Mead Fellow in Economics, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge;
•       John Wilbanks, vice president for Science, Creative Commons,
San Francisco.

The authors advocate making data freely available on the Internet for
anyone to download, copy, analyze, reprocess, pass to software or use
for any purpose without financial, legal or technical barriers.
Through the Principles, the group aimed to develop clear language that
explicitly defines how a scientist’s rights to his own data could be
structured so others can freely reuse or build on it. The goal was to
craft language simple enough that a scientist could easily follow it,
and then focus on doing science rather than law.

The Panton Principles were publicly launched in February of 2010, with
a Web site at www.pantonprinciples.org to spread the word and an
invitation to endorse. About 100 individuals and organizations have
endorsed the Principles so far.

“This is the first time we’re seeing diverse viewpoints crystallize
around the pragmatic idea that we have to start somewhere, agree on
the basics, and set the tone,” says Heather Joseph, Executive Director
of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
“The authors are all leading thinkers in this area – as well as
producers and consumers of data. They each approached the idea of open
data from different directions, yet with the same drive to open up
science, and ended up on common ground.”

According to Pollock, “It's commonplace that we advance by building on
the work of colleagues and predecessors – standing on the shoulders of
giants. In a digital age, to build on the work of others we need
something very concrete: access to the data of others and the freedom
to use and reuse it. That's what the Panton Principles are about.”

To read the full June 2010 SPARC Innovator profile, visit
http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator.

The SPARC Innovator program recognizes advances in scholarly
communication propelled by an individual, institution, or group.
Typically, these advances exemplify SPARC principles by challenging
the status quo in scholarly communication for the benefit of
researchers, libraries, universities, and the public. SPARC Innovators
are featured on the SPARC Web site semi-annually and have included the
Optical Society of America, R. Preston McAfee; Harvard University FAS;
student leaders; and others. SPARC Innovators are selected by the
SPARC staff in consultation with the SPARC Steering Committee.

Individuals can nominate their colleagues as potential SPARC
Innovators at http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/nominate.html.

For further information or to learn more about earlier SPARC
Innovators, see the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

###

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with
SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more
than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open
system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational, and
publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of
research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

-------------------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Programs & Operations
SPARC
jennifer at arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
*******************************
SPARC 2010 Digital Repositories Meeting
November 8 & 9 - Baltimore, MD
http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/09-0223.shtml
*******************************
Open Access Week 2010
October 18 - 24. Everywhere.
http://www.openaccessweek.org
*******************************
http://www.arl.org/sparc

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-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg