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Free keywords:
Cyberscience, cyberinfrastructure, open source, scientific publishing, guild publishing, trade publishing, peer review, open access, copyright, knowledge-based economy, Creative Commons, Science Commons
Abstract:
Open source, open content and open access are set to fundamentally alter the conditions
of knowledge production and distribution. Open source, open content and open access
are also the most tangible result of the shift towards e-Science and digital networking.
Yet, widespread misperceptions exist about the impact of this shift on knowledge
distribution and scientific publishing. It is argued, on the one hand, that for the academy
there principally is no digital dilemma surrounding copyright and there is no
contradiction between open science and the knowledge-based economy if profits are
made from nonexclusive rights. On the other hand, pressure for the ‘digital doubling’ of
research articles in Open Access repositories (the ‘green road’) is misguided and the
current model of Open Access publishing (the ‘gold road’) has not much future outside
biomedicine. Commercial publishers must understand that business models based on
the transfer of copyright have not much future either.
Digital technology and its economics favour the severance of distribution from
certification. What is required of universities and governments, scholars and publishers,
is to clear the way for digital innovations in knowledge distribution and scholarly
publishing by enabling the emergence of a competitive market that is based on
nonexclusive rights. This requires no change in the law but merely an end to the praxis
of copyright transfer and exclusive licensing. The best way forward for research
organisations, universities and scientists is the adoption of standard copyright licenses
that reserve some rights, namely Attribution and No Derivative Works, but otherwise
will allow for the unlimited reproduction, dissemination and re-use of the research
article, commercial uses included.
