[LIS-Forum] Publicly funded research - access to information

Kanikaram Satyanarayana kanikaram_s at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 4 10:23:38 IST 2003


From: K. Satyanarayana

The issue of providing free global access to new
information generated with or without Govt support
through the learned journals has been the tradition of
scientists for over three centuries. The new twist to
this barrier-free access to information, especially
generated with federal support, is due the fear and
anxiety  that it might be used by 'rogue' state or
groups for carrying out activities detrimental to
human health (say, manufacture of chemical or
biological weapons). The 'designing' of a new virus in
the laboratory is but one such frightining example. 
If the new data are likely to be of such nature, I see
no reasons why such attemtps be made to prevent free
flow of such information. After all, even now much of 
the data in the sensitive and strategic sectors of
defense, space and atomic energy continue to be in the
restrictive category. I think every sovereign
democratic country has the right to restrict access to
a 'reasonable extent' such data/information. In fact,
many journals in the areas of microbiology, virology
have voluntary initiated steps to prevent such data
from being made public, through pre-publication
scrutiny, irrespective of the source of funding. What
is 'reasonable restriction' should, of course, by
debated by the scholarly community instead of leaving
to the policy makers. 

K. Satyanarayana
Indian Council of Medical Research
Ansari Nagar
New Delhi 
India 110029
P.S: These are my own views and not necessaily of the
organisation I work with.

> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 08:55:01 +0530 
> From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun at mssrf.res.in>
> 
> Recently I received this on the mail:
> 
> While I don't believe the US government can dictate
> WHERE something is
> published, I do believe it has every right and even
> an obligation (to the
> public health if nothing else) to dictate the
> conditions of how the
> published research that comes out of grants it
> funds.  Specifically, it
> could require that all of it be made available to
> the public free, as
> Medline is now.  I believe it is such a big player
> (the elephant in the
> living room?) that it could make such a requirement
> stick.  Sure, JAMA can
> get it "first" (or Nature or Science), but then it
> also becomes available
> elsewhere.  If publishers don't like it, then so
> much the better for open
> access journals.
> 
> Harvey Brenneise
> Michigan Public Health Institute
> hbrenne at mphi.org
> ---
> 
> I agree. Results of all publicly funded research -
> whether funded by US Govt
> or Pakistani Govt or Cuban Govt - should be made
> available free. Surely, the
> governments have a right to pass suitable
> legislation.
> 
> Arun
> 
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