Dancing with words

The Council of the European Union yesterday issued its "Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation". From the language in the Conclusions (Euro-speak, of course) it is clear that the Council has taken on board the arguments that scientific communication is suboptimal and can be improved. It also makes the step of linking this with doing science better in Europe, and with the benefits to the people of Europe that would ensue from such improvements. So far, so good. The overall outcome, though, is that the Council recommends 'more studies'. Who would ever have predicted that? This is Eurocracy at its best - and it is the thing that contributes most to making living in Europe so tedious. A bias for action it is not. Yet next minute we will be being reminded that European science is fragmented, does not hang together and progress like that of North America, fails to deliver the innovations that the European economy needs to keep it competitive, is destined to lose out to the let's-just-do-it philosophy of the Asian Tiger Economies. Yes, yes, yes and yes; all true. And more studies on scientific communication won't help any of those things one jot.

There were also several mentions in the Conclusions of the term 'delayed open access'. I would call that an oxymoron except that oxymorons are meant to be deliberate and done for effect. I doubt the Council intended such an outcome. The Budapest Open Access Initiative and the Berlin Declaration gave us nothing on timing, but the Bethesda Statement did: it specifically defines Open Access as 'immediate', as of course it must be. Defining grades of Open Access is a nonsense. Findings are either Open Access - made available to all immediately they are ready to be disseminated - or they are not Open Access. Access is instead restricted. There is a great attraction to publishers in finding ways to describe Restricted Access as open. Carried to its logical conclusion, all publications thus become Open Access. Some are Delayed-For-A-Bit Open Access, others are Quite-A-Lot-Delayed Open Access, some are Very-Delayed Open Access and the rest - where the publisher never intends to make them freely available at all - are simply Permanently-Delayed Open Access. You see, what is there to complain about?

In the UK, Open Access has another meaning - the right to roam across privately-owned land for recreational reasons. We have a new law that gives people this right, expecting them to observe the rules of the countryside (like closing gates behind them) and generally behaving themselves properly. Access to a given piece of land is either open or it is not, there and then, whenever a hiker reaches it. The same holds for research. It is either Open Access, immediately upon publication, or it is Restricted Access and may be accessed under a variety of other models.

Though we should be grateful that there are signs of some sort of grasp of the issues at stake, we have to conclude that the Council still hasn't got the point. That is that if we wish Europe's research and development to move forward at optimal speed, one which is now much faster than it ever could be before, facilitated by the Web, access to research findings must be immediate. The proverbial Martian would find it very perplexing that research is done and then the results hidden for a period of time before the rest of the community can get a look at them. European taxpayers, when appraised of the situation, would no doubt feel the same.

Dear Council members: European scientists are every bit as good as any elsewhere in the world. If you think European science doesn't work as well as it should, you are right. We have major problems with our science in Europe - structural, economic, political. Seeing to it that the fabric of communication is optimal would help a very great deal. Come up with a proper policy on the use of taxpayer-funded research. You can do it if you try.

In a book just published (1) on exam howlers, one schoolboy quote is this: "The USSR and the USA became global powers but Europe remained incontinent." From the mouths of babes ....

(1) Must Try harder! The very Worst Howlers By Schoolchildren, by Norman McGreevy, published by Constable, 2007.