UK Government minister’s support for open access
The Government Minister for universities and science, David Willets, made a significant speech yesterday in support of a transition to open access. Speaking to the Publishers Association, he made strong statements of intent to ensure sustainable models are found to make publicly funded research available to the public.
There is a useful analysis of the speech in a blog by scientist Stephen Curry.
This follows a month where open access has made front page news in the Guardian and has been the subject of numerous news stories by the BBC, The Economist, Times Higher Education and more. The UK PubMed Central blog provides a round-up of some of these stories.
The Government’s commissioned report looking into options for enabling open access is due in the next few weeks, and will no doubt spur further debate.
Ya the law was passed before few days. I heard that.