|
|
WERF Adopts Open Access Policy on Final Reports
The Water Environment Research Foundation today announced a new open
access initiative that will bring its wastewater and stormwater research
results to the forefront of scientific and technical innovation. The new
policy, which was vetted with all subscribers through an initial survey
and then with a follow-up invitation to comment on the proposal, will go
into full effect on July 1, 2009.
Recognizing that its subscribers benefit when elected officials,
regulators, and the public have accurate information on which to base
funding and regulatory decisions, WERF intends to improve access to its
objective research results.
The open access policy has two primary components:
-
First, all WERF final research report PDF files and hard copy
reports remain available exclusively to subscribers, or available for
sale to the public, through WERF and its publishing partners for two
years. After the initial two years, all WERF final research report PDF
files will be “open access,” free to the general public,
from the WERF website. (Tools are not part of the open access
initiative.)
-
Second, if the WERF Board of Directors, Research Council,
Communications Advisory Committee, or executive director determine that
an earlier release of a final research report is in the public’s
and subscribers' interest, they will need a majority vote in the
affirmative to enact “open access” for that report before
the 2-year open access date. Once WERF designates a report as open
access, a PDF version of the report will be available, free of
charge, on the WERF website.
The new policy went through several months of comments and
considerations.
In November, WERF sent an advisory survey to all subscribing
organizations, asking if WERF should make its research reports freely
available to the public. Subscribers were generous with their
comments.
“There was a recognition that subscribers would benefit from
accurate scientific information being made available to the
public,” explains WERF executive director Glenn Reinhardt.
“They pointed out repeatedly that oceans of misinformation exist
in cyberspace and that WERF should be a reliable repository of good
science.”
Many subscribers voiced strong support for a timed-release of
information to open access, although the timing differed.
Armed with the survey results, the WERF Board of Directors engaged in
a lively debate on how best to interpret the outcome. They crafted the
compromise solution, and approved a resolution in December. Before
implementing the policy, however, they asked Reinhardt to ask again for
subscriber input. Based on that input, the Board gave the go-ahead at
their April 30 meeting.
“This significant step is one more way that WERF helps its
subscribers improve services, meet fiscal responsibilities, promote
public health, and protect the environment,” Reinhardt says.
“Improving access to scientifically valid information supports the
development of reasonable public policy and aids more rapid
technological development.”
Open access policies are becoming the new standard for research
organizations that want to provide objective and peer-reviewed
information to an increasingly interconnected world.
“The amount of misinformation readily available on the internet
compels WERF to make its work, among the best that exists, available to
all interested parties,” noted one subscriber in his response to
the November survey.
One responder’s comments set the tone for the compromise policy
ultimately adopted by the Board. “It might be reasonable to limit
access for something like two or three years and then to have open
access,” this subscriber wrote. “For documents where WERF
wants wide distribution, open access should start from
publication.”
A complete copy of the WERF
Open Access Policy, adopted by the Board of Directors at their
meeting on December 16, 2008, is on the WERF website.
May 4, 2009
|
|
|
