Open access i forskningspolitiken
en undersökning av de politiska argumenten i debatten kring vetenskaplig publicering
ForskningspolitikDocumentationOpen accessE-publiceringVetenskaplig publiceringElektronisk publiceringArkiv- och bibliotekskunskapDokumentationArchivisticsLibrary scienceInformationSocial Sciences
This Master's thesis aims at pinpointing the political arguments that appear in the recent debate on scientific publication. There is a widely spread opinion that prices on digital resources are far too high, thus taking up a major part of the University libraries budget, while publishing companies make high profits. It is also a common opinion that the current publishing method does not take full advantage of the possibilities of electronic publishing. Lately a number of alternative ways of publishing have been initiated and discussed, generally referred to as open access. Open access published material is available free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions on the public internet.In this thesis the minutes from four hearings held by the UK House of Commons in the spring of 2004 are examined. These hearings were held by the Science and Technology Committee as part of an extensive examination of the scientific publication market, and during its course politicians, publicists, librarians and scientists were interviewed. A wide range of issues concerning scientific publication were discussed during the hearings, but in this thesis the focus is on the aspects of access and copyright. Special attention is given to which experiences from the debate that can be applied to the situation of these matters in Sweden.