UNESCO Publications to be Open Access

UNESCO is making its publications open access, that is freely available to anyone with internet access.

Extracts from Press Release:

UNESCO will make its digital publications available to millions of people around the world free-of-charge with an open license. Following a decision by the Organization’s Executive Board in April, UNESCO has become the first member of the United Nations to adopt such an Open Access policy for its publications. The new policy means that anyone will be able to download, translate, adapt, distribute and re-share UNESCO publications and data without paying.. . . 

Starting from July 2013, hundreds of downloadable digital UNESCO publications will be available to users through a new Open Access Repository with a multilingual interface. All new publications will be released with an open license. UNESCO will also seek ways to apply it retroactively, i.e. to works already published.. If UNESCO enters into special agreements with publishing partners the Open Access policy need not apply. Co-publishers will be strongly encouraged to adhere to the requirements of the new policy. 

By championing Open Access for its publications, UNESCO reinforces a fundamental goal of an Intergovernmental Organization - to ensure that all the knowledge it creates is made available to the widest possible audience.

Darwin Correspondence Project: Darwin-Hooker Letters

A recent press release by the University of Cambridge states that the 40-year friendship of Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker, the most significant and scientifically important of Darwin’s life, can now be explored by anyone in the world with access to the Internet.

Their decades of correspondence include Darwin’s most famous letter, where he first cautiously reveals not only that he thinks species change, but also that he has worked out a completely new theory as to how. Giving voice to such a theory, he admits, is like ‘confessing a murder’.

The 1,200 letters between Darwin and Hooker, 300 of which have not been published before, are being made available in more than 5,000 images by Cambridge’s Digital Library (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/) - which launched to millions of ‘hits’ with the online publication of Isaac Newton’s archive in 2011.

For more information, and links to selected letters see: http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwin-hooker-letters.

Wellcome Trust Supports Open Access Award Programme

The Wellcome Trust has joined with the Public Library of Science and Google to launch the Accelerating Science Award Program (ASAP) to recognise the use of scientific research, published through open access, that has led to innovations in any field that benefit society. 

This new, innovative programme recognises individuals who have used, applied or remixed scientific research - published through open access - to innovate and make a difference in science, medicine, business, technology or society as a whole. Potential nominees include individuals, teams or groups of collaborators (such as scientists, researchers, educators, social services, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, patient advocates, public health workers and students) who have used scientific research in transformative ways.. . . 

ASAP is sponsored by 24 global organisations that value the transformative impact of applying scientific research, published through open access, to extend the reach of science and medicine.

Click here for the full press release