Towards «Open science»? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISTEX: the giant digital library of the future ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The launch of the ISTEX Excellence Initiative for Scientific and Technical Information in April 2012, as part of the Investments for the Future program, was indisputably the stand-out event in 2012. This three-year, €60 million program backed by CNRS is designed to acquire retrospective collections of reviews from specialized publishers in order to add them to a giant digital library specifically developed for this purpose. “This is not just another access portal or simple compilation,” Serge Bauin points out. “It is the elaboration of a genuine structured database containing several million documents shared by the entire scientific community. Researchers will be able to work on, complete, and enrich this unique information source, which is now owned by public research and higher education institutions. A platform created specifically to host this database will be integrated in existing digital environments.” ISTEX is scheduled to go online in 2014 and will offer a wide range of applications: systematic access to full-text documents; powerful, customized search engine; data processing services; easy browsing between current resources and retrospective collections; and long-term remote access for all members of higher education establishments and research organizations. Three partners are taking part in this digital adventure, along with CNRS: the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education (ABES) in charge of acquisitions and negotiations with publishers; the Couperin Consortium dedicated to defining requirements and eligible resources; and the University of Lorraine acting on behalf of the Conference of University Presidents (CPU) for the development of value-added services. The CNRS Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (INIST) is responsible for developing and implementing the platform that hosts the entire project. An Executive Committee with representatives of all four partners monitors progress, while acquisitions are managed by the national “Digital Scientific Library” (BSN) steering committee. The first phase of the project – a wide-ranging survey of researchers’ requirements – was completed in late 2012, and initial negotiations are underway with publishers. . 61 Green or Gold? Since the creation of ArXiv, there have been numerous initiatives using different task organization models. These are often identified by two colors: Green, whereby researchers publish their articles in a freely-accessible archive financed by research institutions, and Gold whereby the journal offers free-of-charge access. The Gold option raises economic model issues. For example, some publishers charge the author – or more often the author’s employer – a (generally very high) fee for publishing an article online, similar to self-publishing. “By creating HAL in 2000, CNRS provided a platform for submitting or building up institutional or theme-based archives using the Green model,” said the DIST Director. By the end of 2012, this multidisciplinary platform developed by the “Center for Direct Scientific Communication”, a CNRS intramural research unit, hosted almost 230,000 documents available in open access. On April 2, 2013 CNRS, the Universities and Higher Education Institutions Mutualization Agency (AMUE), the Conference of University Presidents (CPU), the Higher Education Institutions Association (CGE) and 22 establishments decided to use HAL as a common platform for submitting their scientific production. CNRS applied the Gold principle in its Open Edition partnership with EHESS, the University of Provence and the University of Avignon. This innovative program, led by the Center for Open Electronic Publishing (Cléo) joint research unit, is based on a model using an open access platform for scientific publications. However, CNRS has not yet made a definitive choice between Green and Gold: it offers open archives (Green), as well as fully-subsidized reviews and self-published articles (Gold). No doubt the best policy is to leave free reign to the various options. While the principle of making Open Access widely available has been accepted, access for no charge raises peer review issues. How should the content of publications be checked and certified? This question remains unanswered. Several projects are being envisaged, such as those based on the concept of an overlay journal whereby peer reviews follow publication in an open archive rather than being a prerequisite for publication in a periodical. The CNRS Scientific and Technical Information Department is actively involved in numerous projects aimed at expanding Open Access. Along with the previously cited structural initiatives such as CCSD and Cléo, CNRS takes part in two workgroups within Science Europe (an organization that brings together 51 funding agencies and/ or research institutions) on Open Access to both publications and research data. It is also part of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) which gathers nearly 100 Open Archives worldwide; MedOANet, a two-year European project launched in 2011 to promote and harmonize Open Access policies across southern Europe; and OpenAire, a European Commission initiative to ensure access to publications funded by the framework program, along with OpenAire+, its sister program for data. Other projects are underway, such as SCOAP3 in high-energy physics or the worldwide Research Data Alliance for research data. Clearly, scientific information, which is central to research, is undergoing a full-scale revolution and CNRS is at the forefront of developments. 2012 A year at CNRS
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