Designing the Microbial Research Commons Proceedings of an International Symposium (2011) / Chapter Skim
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10. Designing the Digital Commons in Microbiology - Moving from Restrictive Dissemination of Publicly Funded Knowledge to Open Knowledge Environments: A Case Study in Microbiology
10. Designing the Digital Commons in Microbiology - Moving from Restrictive Dissemination of Publicly Funded Knowledge to Open Knowledge Environments: A Case Study in Microbiology
Pages 77-90
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From page 77... ...
Comparison of some key characteristics of the print dissemination and digitally networked paradigms: PRINT GLOBAL DIGITAL NETWORKS (pre) Industrial Age post-industrial Information Age fixed, static transformative, interactive rigid flexible, extensible physical virtual local global linear non-linear, asynchronous limited content and types unlimited contents and multimedia distribution difficult, slow easy and immediate dissemination copying cumbersome, not perfect copying simple and identical significant marginal distribution cost zero marginal distribution cost single user (or small group)
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From page 78... ...
Table 10–2 offers a summary of some of the advantages to science of open access to -- and unrestricted reuse of -- publicly generated or funded data and information on digital networks. Advantages to science of open access to and unrestricted reuse of publicly generated or funded data and information on digital networks: Promotes interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and international research Enables automated knowledge discovery Avoids inefficiencies, including duplication of research Promotes new research and new types of research Reinforces open scientific inquiry and encourages diversity of analysis and opinion Allows for the verification of previous results Makes possible the testing of new or alternative hypotheses and methods of analysis Supports studies on data collection methods and measurement Facilitates the education of new researchers Promotes citizen scientists and serendipitous results, enabling the exploration of topics not envisioned by the initial investigators and the primary research community Permits the creation of new datasets when data from multiple sources are combined Promotes capacity building in developing countries and global research Supports economic growth and social welfare Generally provides greater returns from public investments in research TABLE 10–2 Advantages of open access to an unrestricted use of digital information.
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From page 79... ...
In our empirical research of the journal literature, we assessed the copyright and access policies of publishers responsible for journals containing primary research articles and reviews in the field of microbiology. We also selected science journals from other areas, such as immunology, that regularly publish articles in the field of microbiology.
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From page 80... ...
This is particularly true for public science in the digital domain, whose norms favor maximum use, reuse, and redistribution by third parties of the knowledge that publicly funded researchers generate. In the pre-digital epoch, legislation -- and copyright legislation in particular -- did contain some measures that attenuated this conflict in the interest of science, but the digital revolution that has created such promising opportunities for scientific research has also generated intense fears that publishers of literary and artistic works generally would become vulnerable to massive infringements online and to other threats of market failure.
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From page 81... ...
These impediments to the global exchange of basic scientific information are then magnified by the ability of intellectual property rights holders to override relevant exceptions and limitations by a combination of technological protection measures and even more restrictive contractual conditions. In this legal environment, the continued ability of scientists to access, use, and reuse essential upstream knowledge assets depends increasingly on their willingness to disregard -- consciously or unconsciously -- the legal and contractual constraints on their everyday research.
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From page 82... ...
These actors have been the pathmakers in developing a broad range of initially disparate, but related institutional and policy initiatives in diverse information types, disciplines, and countries. As these projects proliferate and become better established, they are coming together to form a nascent, interoperable global information commons for public science.
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From page 83... ...
The logical response is to cut the Gordian knot by retaining ownership and control of all knowledge assets produced by the relevant research community with public funding within the public science framework itself, rather than assigning them to external publishing intermediaries. Although this was customary in the past, when the print medium dictated high front-end costs, it is not necessary in a digital world.
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From page 84... ...
At the same time, the knowledge hubs could evolve into a more solid institutionalized platform, with a view to integrating and systematizing all the knowledge resources needed by the community and all the digital services that made access to use and reuse of these resources as easy and efficient as possible, while also stimulating related educational activities and downstream commercial applications. In this scenario, public funds would remain within the circle of knowledge creators and would nourish all the relevant services, with very low transaction costs and without dissipation to unnecessary external information brokers.
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From page 85... ...
Integrating openly available scientific information resources with open-source collaborative tools online would enable the formation of OKEs for the creation of new knowledge, the enhancement of educational opportunities, and the stimulation of downstream applications. Such an approach would harness the social and technical power of the network which, if properly managed, could greatly increase the value of the knowledge in ways not currently possible with the traditional information production and dissemination processes, and it generally could do so at a much lower cost than the traditional approach.
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From page 86... ...
The move towards an integrated microbial research commons requires linking the materials, digital data, literature and other information resources available from a globally distributed open-access infrastructure and providing interactive platforms for scientists to build on those resources and contribute to them. Effective links between the different open-access components of the material and digital commons are needed to improve the efficacy of cumulative research and to increase the speed of the entire research cycle.
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From page 87... ...
Moreover, this restructuring could produce the critical mass needed to selforganize in a way that limits the undue influence of commoditizing pressures on public and upstream research, while creating mechanisms for greater cooperation in precompetitive and noncommercial research activities; such cooperation has to date been lagging in microbial science. We have in mind the example of molecular biology in the late 1980s, which self-organized and developed a big science infrastructure and became a leader in the life sciences open access movement.
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From page 88... ...
It would be part teaching tool, part knowledge production and dissemination. It would also generate interest by funders to provide grants and attract collaborations because it would be a new kind of thematic hub relating to a certain area of research.
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From page 89... ...
Certainly we do not expect all the journals to be superseded by this kind of process and it would all be done in an incremental way. It would be a way to get away from the stovepipe print-paradigm journal system, with journals that have a bunch of unrelated articles in each issue that are not optimized for automated knowledge discovery.
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