The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released:
Policy Guidelines For The Development And Promotion Of Open Access
by Alma Swan
From the Executive Summary:
These Guidelines provide an account of the development
of Open Access, why it is important and desirable, how to
attain it, and the design and effectiveness of policies.Open Access is a new way of disseminating research
information, made possible because of the World Wide
Web.…
Open Access is achieved by two main routes:
◾ Open Access journals, the ‘gold’ route to Open Access,
are a particularly successful model in some disciplines,
and especially in some geographical communities
◾ The ‘green’ route, via repositories can capture more
material, faster, if the right policies are put in place…
The benefits of Open Access are summarized as follows:
◾ Open Access improves the speed, efficiency and
efficacy of research
◾ Open Access is an enabling factor in interdisciplinary
research
◾ Open Access enables computation upon the research
literature
◾ Open Access increases the visibility, usage and impact
of research
◾ Open Access allows the professional, practitioner and
business communities, and the interested public, to
benefit from research
Cross-posted on Legal Research Plus.
