Chinese agencies announce open-access policies by Richard Van Noorden. (Nature | doi:10.1038/nature.2014.15255
From the post:
China has officially joined the international push to make research papers free to read. On 15 May, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), one of the country’s major basic-science funding agencies, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which funds and conducts research at more than 100 institutions, announced that researchers they support should deposit their papers into online repositories and make them publicly accessible within 12 months of publication.
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That’s certainly good news for data aggregation providers, using topic maps or no, but Richard’s post closes on an odd note:
Another unresolved issue is whether the 12-month grace period should also apply to articles in the social sciences and humanities — which are within the CAS’s purview but face “special challenges”, Zhang says.
Richard identifies Zhang as:
Xiaolin Zhang, director of the National Science Library at the CAS in Beijing, says that another major research-funding agency, the national ministry of science and technology, is also researching open-access policies.
Perhaps Richard will follow up with Zhang on what he means by “special challenges” for articles in the social sciences and the humanities.
I can’t imagine anyone thinking they are likely to obtain a patent based on social science or humanities research.
Open access would increase the opportunity for people outside of major academic institutions to read the latest social science and humanities research. I don’t see the downside to greater access to such articles.
Do you?