Open Society Institute awards grant to support Open Access Documentary Project

SOURCE: SPARC-OAForum

New York, September 17, 2007 – The Open Society Institute has awarded a grant to support the production and distribution of the Open Access Documentary Project, a collection of online videos celebrating the benefits of open access to scientific and medical research. Intelligent Television and BioMed Central are co-producers of the Project.

The Open Access Documentary Project will facilitate the ongoing work of BioMed Central and Intelligent Television in promoting open access to science and medicine in fields as diverse as malaria research and particle physics.

The producers are now assembling an international editorial board and contacting institutions that hold archival and production resources that will be vital to the project. Principal production has begun in London, New York, and at CERN in Geneva, featuring video interviews with publishers and consumers of scientific and medical information in the developed and developing world —and with other stakeholders in open access including foundations, government agencies, and the media.

Intelligent Television, based in New York, produces television programs, films, and videos that closely involve libraries, museums, universities, and archives. Intelligent Television is currently producing programming in association with the Library of Congress, Columbia University, MIT, and other cultural and educational institutions. Intelligent Television’s productions and research projects focus on making educational and cultural material more widely accessible worldwide.

BioMed Central, based in London, is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research. BioMed Central's portfolio of 180+ journals includes general titles such as the Journal of Biology and the Journal of Medical Case Reports alongside journals that focus on particular disciplines (e.g., BMC Bioinformatics, Malaria Journal). Since launch in 2000, BioMed Central has published more than 27,000 peerreviewed open access articles.