One of the first actions announced by the Minister of the new [Spanish] Ministry for Innovation and Science was the development of a new Law on Science. It is already working on a preliminary draft of the law, for whose preparation a Working Group was established, made up of specialists in various subjects that the law intends to touch upon. And as good news for our OA community, one of the topics included in this draft is open access to the results of scientific research financed with public funds. ...
[The Ministry organized] a few days of debate last month and has opened an electronic mechanism to enable stakeholders to send comments, suggestions and opinions on the preliminary draft until late December.
The draft includes the issue of open access, which is an important step; however, the wording was too vague with regard to the arguments about its importance, and on the other hand, if left as is, may be limited to a mere declaration of intent, as it doesn't specify the means that will allow open access (in terms of infrastructure that supports it, for example). ...
Gavin Baker at 11/02/2008 12:36:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.