RAISING POLICY AWARENESS ABOUT SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION LITERACY IN THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA:

A FIRST SET OF OPTIONSCarla Basili

Ceris Institute, National Research Council, Rome, Italyc.basili@ceris.cnr.it

Stéphane GoldsteinResearch Information Network, London, UK. stephane.goldstein@researchinfonet.org

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THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /1

“Knowledge is the currency of the new economy.” Commission Communication COM(2012) 392 - A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth

An important premise: scientific information does not just consist of journal articles, books and conference proceedings – it also includes research data, statistical databases, patent databases , and any other form of sharable scientific result

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THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /2

THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION“In order to become an increasingly competitive knowledge-based economy, Europe must improve the production of knowledge through research, its dissemination through education, and its application through innovation. All research builds on former work, and depends on scientists’ possibilities to access and share scientific publications and research data. The rapid and widespread dissemination of research results can help accelerate innovation and avoid duplication of research efforts, although some delay for the first use by researchers or for commercial purposes can be justified.”

EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation [COM(2007) 56]

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THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /3

European Commission COM (2012) 401 - Towards better access to scientific information: boosting the benefits of public investments in research

“Access to scientific information is an essential requirement for successful research and boosting innovation, and therefore for Europe's competitiveness as well.”

(Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on COM(2012)401)

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MILESTONES OF EU POLICIES FOR OPEN ACCESS /1

Preparatory activities (2006)•Publication of EU-commissioned study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in EuropePress release: Commission study addresses Europe's scientific publication system'

Public consultation 31 March to 15 June 2006

Institutional engagement with OA (2007)• Communication on Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and

preservation COM(2007) 56 final • Council Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and

preservation – recommendation to the Commission to experiment with Open Access to scientific results from projects funded by EU research framework programmes

• ERC (European Research Council) Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access – which provide for the OBLIGATION to deposit in Open Access disciplinary or institutional repositories, within a maximum period of time defined by 6 or 12 months after the formal publication.

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MILESTONES OF EU POLICIES FOR OPEN ACCESS /2

Launch of Open Access Pilot in FP7 (2008)Launch of Open Access Pilot in FP7 in 7 research areas constituting the 20% of the total funding amount in FP7 – This initiative is formalised by the Commission Decision (C (2008 (C(2008) 4408). on the adoption and a modification of special clauses applicable to the model Grant Agreement of FP7 (requirement FP7 projects to comply with the Open Access strategy) July 2012• Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information• Communication Towards better access to scientific information.

Boosting the benefits of public investments in researchDecember 2013Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020

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MILESTONES OF EUROPEAN POLICIES FOR RESEARCH DATA

A number of initiatives have been specifically devoted (by the EC and other influential bodies) to research data and listed below in chronological order.• OECD 2007 –Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from

Public Funding• October 2010 – Riding the wave. How Europe can gain from the rising tide of

scientific data - Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data .A submission to the European Commission

• December 2011 – COM(2011) 882 final - Open data. An engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance, Brussels, 12.12.2011

• July 2013 – European Commission public consultation on open research data.

• From 2013, European Commission support for the Research Data Alliance

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TRANSFORMATION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION TRANSFORMATION OF

INFORMATION LITERACY

The acquisition of know-how about the scholarly communication environment and processes must be recognised as a vital element of information literacy

Scholarly Communication is in period of deep transformation therefore

Also IL must transform to include an evolving meaning of Scholarly Communication

N.B. the ACRL report “Intersections” is a good starting point but should be enlarged to include researchers as target and all the categories of research results.

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ONGOING POLICY TRENDS FOR TRAINING RESEARCHERS

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Under FP7 Work Programme 2013 – Capacities part 5, Science and Society, an important relevant theme: “Encouraging the debate on information dissemination, including access to scientific results and the future of scientific publications, taking also into account measures to improve access by the public”Two action lines:• Upstream support to the definition, development and

implementation of OA strategies and policies and to their coordination in the European Research Area

• Downstream training on OA in the European Research Area

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PROJECT ON TRAINING IN OPEN SCIENCE

Downstream training on OA in the European Research Area:• “… this topic supports actions with a clear European added value

that are aimed at developing, improving or consolidating training activities at downstream level and reach the highest number of stakeholders in the European Research Area. Actions proposed must be aimed at training stakeholders with a view to permitting them and/or their organisations to fully comprehend policy and practical aspects of open access to scientific information. “

• FOSTER (‘Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research’) funded for two years, 2014-2016

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EC PRIORITIES FOR INFORMATION POLICY IN THE ERA

Information Policies within the European Research Area can be summarised along three complementary strands:• open access to the results of publicly funded research activities, • effective transfer of research results,• development of a European knowledge market for patents and

licensing. Recognised as contributions to the development of the Innovation Union [Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative, Innovation Union COM(2010)546 ]Are distinct policy lines summarising EU expectations for what concerns scientific information and research behaviours.

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WHERE IS THE PLACE FOR SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION LITERACY?

Against all the above, this seems to be the right time to support the timely and wide dissemination of SIL in the policies for scientific information in Europe.

Open Access strategy has been already enlarged to encompass every form of scientific results, but

a further step is required: to make researchers able to fully exploit the available knowledge base through the right training.

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ESTABLISHING A EUROPEAN COALITION FOR SIL

European Network for Information Literacy (EnIL) and, in the UK, the InformAll initiative, can help to influence the policy agenda, joining their forces and commitments.

To this end a common research agenda is going to be defined, together with the planning of a set of concrete actions to solicit policy commitment on the topic.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS

Within the current Knowledge Economy paradigm, improving access to research results constitutes clearly a crucial goal.

This rationale forms the basis of the EC policies for Scientific Information, where nonetheless the IL dimension appears disregarded.

EC policy effort towards scientific information is currently particularly intense and therefore this could be the right time to raise awareness about the pivotal role of scientific information literacy.

EnIL and InformAll are planning to co-operate towards this goal, and we would welcome partners across Europe to help us develop our networking capacity.

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REFERENCES /1

Association of College and Research Libraries (2013) – Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy – Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment – http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/Intersections.pdf

Council of the European Union (2007) – Council Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation – http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/council_conclusions_nov2007_6592.pdf

European Commission (2013) – Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 – http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf

European Commission (2013) – Report of the European Commission Public Consultation on Open Research Data – https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/Report_2013-07-OpenResearchData-Consultation-FINAL1.pdf

European Commission, C(2012) 4526 – Work Programme 2013 (Capacities, Part 5, Science in Society), see in particular area 5.1.3.3 - http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/fp7/134006/s-wp-201301_en.pdf

European Commission, C(2012) 4890 - Commission Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/recommendation-access-and-preservation-scientific-information_en.pdf

European Commission, COM(2007) 56 – Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/communication-022007_en.pdf

European Commission, COM(2010) 546 – Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative, Innovation Union - http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/innovation-union-communication_en.pdf

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REFERENCES /2

European Commission, COM(2011) 882 – Open data: an engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance – http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0882:FIN:EN:PDF

European Commission, COM(2012) 392 – A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth – http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/era-communication_en.pdf

European Commission , COM (2012) 401 – Towards better access to scientific information: boosting the benefits of public investments in research – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/era-communication-towards-better-access-to-scientific-information_en.pdf

European Commission, DG-Research (2006) – Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-study_en.pdf

European Research Council (2007) – Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access – http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/erc_scc_guidelines_open_access.pdf

FOSTER - http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/

High level Expert Group on Scientific Data (2010) , submission to the European Commission – Riding the wave: how Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data – http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/hlg-sdi-report.pdf

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2007) – OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding – http://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/38500813.pdf

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Thank you for your attention!

EnIL (European Network on Information Literacy)http://enil.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/

InformAllwww.informall.eu

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