Décret Open Access | Pour une Science Ouverte en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Google English: "For an open science in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Open letter to the parliamentarians of the Wallonia Brussels Federation as part of the discussion on the draft Open Access Decree (to sign this open letter or see the list of current signatories, go below the page).

The primary purpose of Science is to improve the well-being of everyone and to expand the knowledge of humanity. To achieve this goal, the widest possible dissemination of new knowledge generated by researchers is essential . Researchers around the world now consider that it is not normal for science's achievements to be confined to narrow circles even though such research works for the common good and is largely funded by citizens. Today, in the age of the Internet and instant communication, knowledge must be fully a common good of humanity and no longer be reserved for a limited number of privileged individuals . It is the philosophy that is at the heart of the so-called Open Access movement: to make freely accessible to all scientific work carried out with public means and published by researchers.

This movement has experienced dramatic developments in recent years. Around the world, a very large number of international organizations and institutions, as well as universities, research centers and research funding agencies, have taken strong positions in favor of free and open access. open to scientific information. The progress of Open Access is considerable, especially in French-speaking Belgium with the appearance of "institutional directories" or "institutional digital archives" in which researchers deposit their publications to make them more visible and more accessible to all. Strong policies on Open Access have been decided by most of our universities as well as by the FRS-FNRS [1] .

In this context, a draft Open Access Decree is currently submitted to the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and will be debated starting this week. It must provide a clear and coherent legal framework for researchers, standardized for all institutions of the Federation....

The draft decree proposes that researchers funded in any way by the French Community of Belgium be required to file systematically and upon acceptance of publication, a copy of their scientific articles in an institutional digital archive. It also asks to make free and free access to the full text of these articles, or after an embargo, if it is required by contract with the publisher, but this embargo can not exceed 6 months for articles in STM (sciences , techniques, medicine) and 12 months in SHS (human and social sciences)...."