Joint reponse to EC Survey on Scientific Information in the Digital Age

"Knowledge Exchange has welcomed the invitation of the European Commission to respond to the survey on Scientific Information in the digital age. The partners have each responded independently to the survey from the European Commission, but there are a number of shared positions which are highlighted in this shared response. From the perspective of the four organisations that make up Knowledge Exchange, all outputs from publicly funded research, including publications and research data, should be openly available on the internet as long as matters of privacy and confidentiality do not interfere. This is currently not the case. Providing open access will improve the access to and dissemination of research findings for a broad audience including citizens, students, SMEs and industry. There are various roads to achieve open access. These should be explored in cooperation with the researchers, research funding bodies and the publishers. If an embargo period would be relevant this should certainly be as short as possible...."