Wiki man joins EC OA campaign

The petition has been signed by more than 20,000 academics, librarians and individuals around the world, including Nobel laureates .

It calls on the EC to formally endorse the recommendations outlined in a study it commissioned last year, which concluded that the EU should ensure the widest possible readership for scholarly articles.

Wales told IWR he had signed the petition because it was “simple and obvious” that the public should have access to research they had funded. “Public money should result in public benefit,” he said.

“If you can have research paid for by the public and then get them to pay again to see it, that is a profitable approach. But it contradicts the basic principles of an enlightened approach to scientific knowledge.

“We should also recognise that our research in the developed world can be of enormous practical benefit to researchers in the developing world, many of whom are brilliant scientists who don’t have the same access to research as we do.”

He admitted that wider dissemination of scientific research would help make Wikipedia more relevant. “The more people who have access to the latest research, the easier it will be for our volunteers to keep our articles on science up to date,” he said.

The petition has been delivered to Jan Potocnik, European commissioner for science and research. An EC spokeswoman said open access negotiations were ongoing.