EC petition for public access to publicly funded research results

A petition to the EC, calling to support public access to research outputs

15 February 2007 - 15 February 2007,  00:00 - 00:00, 

As part of the continuing Knowledge Exchange effort to make scholarly and scientific content openly available on the Internet, the partner organisations were key players in launching a petition to the European Commission calling on it to support public access to research outputs shortly after their publication.

Open Access to EC funded research

Organised by the Knowledge Exchange and SPARC Europe, the petition urges the Commission to follow the lead of other research funding agencies in mandating the publication of articles arising from EC-related funding within a given time period using open access archives.

Digital repositories

The petition also calls on the Commission to explore a European-wide approach to policies and practices surrounding the development of digital repositories, as a means of making more visible the fruits of European research and maximising the return on public investment in research.

Petition signed by over 20,000

Over 20,000 individuals and institutions have signed the petition for the European Commission concerning open access. On 15 February 2007, the petition was presented to Janez Potocnik, the EU commissioner for Science and Research.

A news article about the petition has also appeared in The Guardian.