ISCB Public Policy Statement on Open Access to Scientific and Technical Research Literature

Abstract

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is dedicated to advancing human knowledge at the intersection of computation and life sciences. On behalf of the ISCB members, this public policy statement expresses strong support for open access, reuse, integration, and distillation of the publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature, and for the infrastructure to achieve that goal. Knowledge is the fruit of the research endeavor, and the archival scientific and technical research literature is its practical expression and means of communication. Shared knowledge multiplies in utility because every new scientific discovery is built upon previous scientific knowledge. Access to knowledge is access to the power to solve new problems and make informed decisions. Free, open, public, online access to the archival scientific and technical research literature will empower citizens and scientists to solve more problems and make better, more informed decisions. Attribution to the original authors will maintain consistency and accountability within the knowledge base. Computational reuse, integration, and distillation of that literature will produce new and as yet unforeseen knowledge. We strongly encourage open software, data, and databases, issues that are not addressed here. A prior ISCB public policy statement on sharing software provides very clear support for open source/open access (http://www.iscb.org/iscb-policystatements/software_sharing). We support open database access, standards, and interoperability. We also recognize that databases are complex dynamic entities, with ongoing roles and needs that cannot be treated properly within this statement. In contrast, the publicly funded archival research literature, addressed here, is the static historical record of publicly funded research outcomes. ISCB supports many of the principles set forth in other open-access policies and statements, including the ‘‘Budapest Open Access Initiative,’’ the ‘‘Bethesda Declaration on Open Access Publishing,’’ the Bulletin of the World Health Organization ‘‘Equitable Access to Scientific and Technical Information for Health,’’ the US National Academies of Sciences report on ‘‘Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences,’’ the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ‘‘Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding,’’ and the ‘‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.’’ Details on the documents mentioned here may be found in Text S1. Further background material is available in Text S2. The public policy statement (Box 1) put forward here builds upon these principles to elucidate in more detail the public policy position of ISCB and its members on this important issue in scientific dissemination.