Scientific and technical health Scientific and technical health information as a public good: information as a public good: equitable access, ownership equitable access, ownership and copyrightand copyright

Hooman Momen

Editor

Bulletin of the World Health Organization

BackgroundBackground

Dissatisfaction with traditional academic publishing – Increasing prices– Benefits not equally shared among authors,

readers and publishers Challenges posed by internet and

electronic publishing– On-line vision– Financial sustainability

The On-line VisionThe On-line Vision

Problems– Increasing

submissions– Higher prices– Falling subscriptions

Result– Less access due to

higher prices causing vicious circle

Internet solution– Unlimited space– Lower costs

• printing• distribution

– Free or low price for user

Result– More material more

widely available

Financial sustainabilityFinancial sustainability

Cost of acquiring new information technology

Financing editorial costs which remain the same (e.g. peer review)

Savings from print are limited– print often still required by reader’s

Threat to revenue from free web-site Unstable technological environment

Arguments against Free AccessArguments against Free Access

Publishers add value to scientific information – peer review, editing, dissemination

– need to be paid

Private sector more efficient than public sector

Morally, nothing wrong in taking public information adding value to it and then reselling– A basic principle of free enterprise

Arguments for Free AccessArguments for Free Access

Scientific information is in general funded by public money and should be publicly available

Authors, referees and many editors do not receive payment. Why should publishers make so much profit?

Copyright should benefit authors and not publishers

Information should be available to all who need it independently of ability to pay.

Other Advantages of Free AccessOther Advantages of Free Access

Wide dissemination of resultsFavours information sharing and

faster distributionOptimizes research communication

among the scientific communityScientific information should be

considered as a “public good”.

Public Goods - DefinitionPublic Goods - Definition

Adam Smith noted the existence of certain products "which though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society are, however, of such a nature that the profits could never repay the expenses to any individual ..., and which it therefore cannot be expected that any individual … should erect."

Public Goods - AttributesPublic Goods - Attributes

Attributes of public goods: – once they are provided no-one can readily be

excluded from their consumption, – one person’s consumption doesn’t prevent

anyone else from consuming them. These attributes mean

– often a lack of incentive to produce these goods.

– the central issue of concern becomes one of ensuring action in the collective interest.

Scientific information as a Public Scientific information as a Public GoodGood Scientific and technical information in the

health field can be considered – to be an archetypal public good. – It should be freely available for all to benefit.

However often significant costs associated with– production, quality control, dissemination and

preservation

Due to international nature– Global public good

CopyrightCopyright

Promotion of learning– Academic / scholarly objective– “To promote the progress of science and

the useful arts” U.S. Constitution, art. 1

– The “fair use” provisionIntellectual property rights

– Commodification of information– Commercial objective

• Every view should carry a fee

Ownership of CopyrightOwnership of Copyright

Protection begins at the moment of creation– Unlike patents it is not applied for

Granted normally to author – but for employee can be granted to employer

“work-for-hire”

Is not one right but a bundle of rights– distribution, duplication, derivation, moral rights,

performing rights etc.

– Control of specific rights more important than ownership

Functions of copyrightFunctions of copyright

Two distinct functions in Journals– a) Theft of text– b) Theft of authorship

Authors of journal articles are not concerned about a)– In fact it is often against their interests

Authors are very concerned about b)

Reader’s InterestsReader’s Interests

Access– Cheap (affordable)– Barrier free/ fast

Relevant to needs and interestsAbility to browse and searchQuality and authorityConvenience

– need to be able to find what they want

Author’s InterestsAuthor’s Interests

Peer review– rigorous & transparent

Good editing Rapid publication Author friendly copyright

– All use is fair use– Retain integrity / avoid misappropriation

Impact– indicators / wide readership

Public InterestPublic Interest

Free accessQuality informationIntegrity of the process

– rights respected, including authors, readers, publishers

Reliable conservation– future access to knowledge

Open AccessOpen Access

Different modelsCost of publishing borne by provider

– institution, funding agency, author etc.Access to information

– not limited by users ability to payAuthor retains copyrightUsers can freely access, download and

print articles

Open Archives Initiative (OAI)Open Archives Initiative (OAI)

For publishers and editors to obtain– increased coverage, exposure and readership

Open refers to the facts that– protocol openly documented– metadata exposed for harvesting

Archives really mean repository– documents or other resources

Division between data providers and service providers

Self ArchivingSelf Archiving

Authors ‘self-archive’ their papers – either available on their own web sites

– or an institutional repository

– or a subject-based ‘archive’

This will increase the visibility and impact of research

Speed up the scholarly communication process.

Further considerationsFurther considerations

Will the internet remain affordable ?Importance of metadata?Search engines and Portals?DigitalisationChallenges of non-text items

MetadataMetadata

Increasing importance– Determines the use of the information

Standardisation– Who will impose standards?– How will standards be imposed?– Will authors stick to the rules?– Who will be responsible for quality

control?

Search engines and PortalsSearch engines and Portals

A post-Google / post-Gutenberg information environment

Internet Archives store billions of Web pages Difficulty in locating a specified item of information

– precisely and instantly among the mass of information available on the Web

In the electronic environment the de facto interfaces to information are– Search engines and Portals

– rather than the fragmented packages that have migrated from the print world.

DigitalizationDigitalization

Challenges of non-text itemsChallenges of non-text items

Integration of text and non-text items– genome sequences, crystallographic data, software

tools, statistical data, etc. Will articles remain 2 dimensional ?

– 3D, audio, video, databases

Peer review of non-text items Indices Divergence between disciplines

– each subject area will increasingly rely on a broader variety of digitized data

More radical scenariosMore radical scenarios

The end of Journals?– Do we need journals in the post-

Gutenberg age? The deconstructed journal E- science

– Scientific communication versus scientific publication

The Deconstructed JournalThe Deconstructed Journal

Authors self archive manuscriptsInform peer - review body

– Scientific society, National academy, For-profit entity, NGO, Foundation etc

After peer review inform relevant portals– location ( seamless links )– peer review status

E-scienceE-science

E-science - Publish on internet daily– experimental data– metadata– assumptions– analyses

Allow other scientists– check results– re-analyse, annotate, comment

Future of Academic publishingFuture of Academic publishing

Commercial publishers have proven and efficient structures

Millions of pages of contentWell fundedStrong basis for use of new

technologies to provide new services

Semi-open/ Equitable access?Semi-open/ Equitable access?

Consortia and licensing deals– Libraries for institutions– Societies for members– Third parties for other individuals

Flexible pricing– Free archives– Free access for developing countries

• HINARI project

– Differential pricing by size of institution

A possible partnershipA possible partnership

Most journal articles appeal to few scientists

Ratio of articles which generate a large amount of interest is small– Low interest articles still cost the same

to produce as the more interesting articles do.

Partnership of open access and commercial publishers

A solution for developing A solution for developing countriescountries Lack of publishing infrastructure

– advantage Option of making their material available for all to

use and access– SciELO

International treaty on “free trade” in scientific and technological information– Global public goods

Need to resolve problem of Digital Divide

I