Dear All ICSU (International Council for Science) has just published the report of the ICSU/CSPR Assessment Panel on Scientific Data and Information. Online access to this and other related publications of ICSU are available at: http://www.icsu.org/2_resourcecentre/RESOURCE_list_base.php4?rub=9 The Assessment Panel was constituted by ICSU/CSPR in 2003, and charged with both assessing the strategic issues in this arena and reviewing ICSUs current activities. The report contains several observations and recommendations made by the panel, based on its assessment of current and emerging scenario in scientific data and information. A key recommendation is that ICSU should develop a long-term strategic framework for scientific data and information (policies, practices and infrastructure). An essential component of this framework is to establish an international Scientific Data and Information Forum (SCiDIF) involving all the key stakeholders. Though the report is directly addressed to ICSU in facilitating its future planning and policy making, I believe the report content will be of interest to much wider audience at different levels, including policy makers, planners, managers of scientific data and information systems, and also teachers, professionals and students in this area. You are welcome to distribute this publication/ link to whomever you feel would find it useful. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Regards Rajashekar ------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. T.B. Rajashekar Associate Chairman Tel: +91-80-23600271, 23601427 National Centre for Science Fax: +91-80-23601426, 23600683 Information (NCSI) E-Mail: raja@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Indian Institute of Science URL: http://144.16.72.189/raja/ BANGALORE-560012 (India) ------------------------------------------------------------- SciGate: http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ The IISc Science Information Portal