[Reader-list] Conference Announcement--Scholarly Communication in the Age of the Commons

[Sanchia de Souza]

Scholarly Communication in the Age of the Commons
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One-day conference on Open Access

Organised by National Aerospace Laboratories (as a part of their Golden 
Jubilee celebrations), Indian Academy of Sciences and the Centre for 
Internet and Society

* Background

Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free 
of most copyright and licensing restrictions. OA removes price barriers 
(subscriptions, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and permission 
barriers (most copyright and licensing restrictions) and ensures free 
availability and unrestricted use.

In today’s knowledge-based society, the advent of the Internet and 
widespread and easy access to scientific information are facilitating 
research and innovation. Open Access is not only changing the nature of 
scholarly communication but even the way research is carried out. Indeed 
Open Access is the bedrock on which the emerging Global Research Library 
initiative is being built.

Scientists and scientific institutions in India - some of them, to be 
precise - have moved up in the value chain in that they access 
information and disseminate their findings often through barrier-free 
electronic channels. Out of about 3,900 open access journals, India 
accounts for 108 titles as seen from the Directory of Open Access 
Journals. The major Indian publishers of OA journals are Indian Academy 
of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, MedKnow Publications and 
National Informatics Centre. According to the Registry of Open Access 
Repositories there are 40 open access repositories in India including 
those at Indian Institute of Science, National Aerospace Laboratories, 
National Institute of Oceanography, Raman Research Institute, National 
Institute of Technology - Rourkela, and Indian Institutes of Technology. 
Prof. Samir Brahmachari, Director General of CSIR, has initiated the 
Open Source Drug Discovery programme as an alternative to the 
traditional patent-driven model of drug research. Recently CSIR has 
adopted an open access policy. Indian National Science Academy is one of 
the early signatories to the Berlin Declaration.

Thus Open Access - both for accessing worldwide information and for 
making our own research more visible - is not new to India. But one must 
admit that considering the size of India's research and higher education 
enterprise what we have achieved so far is utterly inadequate and 
incommensurate with our ambition to become a knowledge power. We have a 
long way to go. And the first step is to adopt open access nationwide.

This one-day “Conference on Scholarly Communication in India in the Age 
of the Commons” is organized to take stock of the current developments 
in Open Access and to highlight the issues that would need to be 
addressed to enable a wider access to scientific knowledge and to 
enhance the visibility of research performed in India.

* Speakers

Speakers at the event include:
Prof Leslie Chan, University of Toronto and Bioline International 
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~chan/
Prof John Willinsky, Stanford University and Public Knowledge Project 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Willinsky

* Date and Time

26 March 2009; 9.30 am - 5.00 pm

* Venue

S R Valluri Auditorium, National Aerospace Laboratories, (Old) Airport 
Road, Bangalore
Speakers

* Contact

Dr I R N Goudar
Scientist ‘G’ and Head, ICAST
National Aerospace Laboratories
Airport Road, Bangalore-560017

Telephone:  (+91) 80 2508 6080

Fax: (+91) 80 2526 0862

Email: goudar at nal.res.in

* Registration

While you can register on the spot, we encourage you to kindly register 
through e-mail. Please provide your name, designation, address, contact 
telephone number and e-mail address. Participants may make their own 
arrangements for travel and accommodation.

* Programme

Please see 
http://www.cis-india.org/events/scholarly-communication-in-the-age-of-the-commons 
for a brief programme.

-- 
Sanchia de Souza
Publications Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
Phone: 91 97312 72499
Email: sanchia at cis-india.org