The thought behind the Berlin Declaration is simple, says Van Bentum. `Research results financed from public means should be freely accessible for the public. The letter of intent can be seen as a call to scientists to provide their publications to the UT archive, the UT Repository, which is part of a world wide network of scientific information.'
According to Van Bentum this is important, because scientists can make their publications more visible and can be cited more often by fellow scientists. `There is also a great public necessity. The general public usually hears about research conducted with the help of taxpayers' money through journalists. If the public wants to read the results, they should be publicly accessible.' A third party concerned by the letter of intent is the university itself. `The archive can be seen as a shop window: look at what we are doing here!'
To protect the rights and interests of scientific authors, a proposal has recently been developed by the Dutch SURF and the English JISC, two organizations that encourage the innovative use of IT in higher education, says Van Bentum. `At first, scientists had to give up their copyright to the publisher to get an article published in a scientific magazine. With this so-called License-to-Publish the copyright remains with the scientist and it is the author that gives a publisher the right to publish the scientific work. So this is the other way round. The essence of License-to-Publish is the possibility to make scientific research publicly available in addition to publication in scientific journals. The publisher can ask for a six-month period between those two.'
The agreement fits the time we are living in, avers Van Bentum. `The scientific publication process is evolving because of the rise of the internet. Publishers notice their changing position. This agreement, which has come into being thanks to talks with publishers, is a good example.'
Trans. H. van Dorp
