An International Workshop
Creating the Information Commons for e-Science:
Toward Institutional Policies and Guidelines for Action
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
1-2 September 2005

Science Commons

John Wilbanks
Executive Director of Science Commons

Science depends upon the ability to observe, learn from, and test the work of others. Without effective access to data, materials and publications, the scientific enterprise becomes impossible.

Yet recent studies show a disturbing trend; increasing secrecy, cumbersome materials transfer agreements and complex licensing structures have made more difficult the sharing process on which science relies. A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that, "because they were denied access to data, 28% of geneticists reported that they had been unable to confirm published research." And that is published research.

The problem here is not simply the commercialization of science; roadblocks to sharing hurt the development of commercial products too. Nor is it only a matter of expanded intellectual property rights and curtailed "research exemptions." The problem is more complex than that, and the solution must be as well. Our goal is to solve a specific part of the problem: the creation of a larger "Science Commons" built from private agreements, and technical standardization; the same "some rights reserved" approach adopted by Creative Commons, our parent organization.

We will present a case study on the utility of standard, open licensing in the context of open access to the scientific literature, with specific examples both in Open Access journals and institutional repositories. Impact on the developing world will be a specific focus.

For more information, please visit http://science.creativecommons.org/.