En Suecia sólo podrás publicar en revistas con acceso libre

A través de una lista refernte a temas de Sistemas de información (ISWORLD) me llegó un correo comentando un tema que desconocía. Por lo visto en Suecia van a poner en marcha una normativa que exige que los investigadores que obtengan financiación nacional publiquen OBLIGATORIAMENTE tan sólo en revistas que permitan el acceso libre a las mismas. Evitando así que, por ejemplo, el sistema nacional de investigación tenga que pagar dos veces, una por la investigación y otra por conseguir que otros investigadores tengan acceso a los resultados. Este es el correo en detalle:

The Swedish Research Council (the most prestigious research funder and policy leader) now requires Swedish researchers to to publish only where free access is granted. While the ambition is lauable - to grant the Swedish public free access to the result of work they have already paid for - it puts researchers in a dilemma as it seems to exclude publishing in many prestigious IS journals and conferences, as of their current practice. It would be interesting to hear comments from the editors. It appears that similar policies are coming up or already implemented in other countries. A translation of the SRC statement follows
--

Press release , 2009-10-07 In Swedish http://www.vr.se/franvetenskapsradet/nyheter/nyhetsarkiv/nyheter2009/nyheter2009/vetenskapsradetkraverfritillgangtillforskningsresultat.5.227c330c123c73dc586800011519.html

(translation from the Swedish by Ingegerd Rabow)

The Swedish Research Council requires free access to research results.

In order to receive research grants the Research council requires now that researchers publish their material freely accessible to all.

The general public and other researchers shall have free access to all material financed by public funding,

The thought behind the so called Open Access is that everybody shall have free and unlimited access to scientifically refereed articles, The Research Council has now decided, that researchers who are granted research funding from the Council shall publish their refereed texts in journals and at conferences in this way.

"We are of the opinion that texts presenting research funded by public funds shall be freely available to all," says professor Pär Omling Director General of the Swedish Research Council. "Open Access is an important prerequisite for the dissemination of research results to the benefit of society."

Researchers are required to guarantee that everything published shall be freely available according to to Open Access not later than six months after publication.

The Council's decision regarding Open Access has been taken in close cooperation with SUHF, the Association of Swedish Higher Education. To promote free dissemination of research results is not and isolated Swedish occurrence, The so called Berlin Declaration aiming to implement Open Access has been signed by several large, mainly European research funders.

The Open Access-mandate covers so far only refereed journal articles and conference reports, not monographs and book chapters. The mandate will be included in the new grant conditions from 2010.

Una medida cuanto menos interesante y que habrá que seguir y que va en la línea cada vez más habitual de tener acceso libre al conocimiento. Evidentemente, a los investigadores suecos parece que les va a complicar la cosa, al menos inicialmente, dado que normalmente las revistas internacionales de mayor rango no cumplen esta característica. Probablemente no poder publicar en ellas no será un problema a nivel interno, pero sí cuando un investigador sueco quiera compararse o trabajar con colegas internacionales.

Pero evidentemente, si alguien no da el primer paso, los sistemas nunca cambiarán. Como siempre, los nórdicos son los primeros que dan este tipo de pasos.