Il copyright scientifico per una gestione aperta della conoscenza

5 x 5 crucial points and suggestion for scientific copyright is the focus of the Conference “Condividi la Conoscenza: nodi e proposte per una politica della conoscenza. L’Italia e l’agenda di Lisbona”, Milan, IULM, 22 June 2007. (Share the knowledge: crucial points and suggestion for a policy of knowledge. Italy and Lisbon’s agenda”). The present legislation on copyright is a legal limit to scientific dissemination and, consequently, it is an obstacle for a fair economic growth. The five main crucial points of the copyright – within the circle of scholarly communication – can be summarized in the following topics: 1. legal limit to scholar dissemination; 2. the economic displacement from public to private funds provokes damages to public investments; 3. a serious economic restriction, due to a distorted and not competitive market, that stifles small publishers: in fact, 11 publishers dominate the 70% of publishing market, and two publishers possess approximately 2000 journals each; 4. the instrument for knowledge control is property of few people: worldwide research mapping is a very powerful and dangerous instrument of meta information; 5. the present model for research evaluation is no longer applicable in a digital context. The five proposals suggested constitues a unique proposition, that schedules a conscious and intelligent management of scientific copyright, that involves: a. Managers of research institutions, with the role of managers of an intangible public good; b. Scholars producing research into universities and institution, with the role of authors; c. Governments, who must understand that they have to safeguard and protect public good first, and then the interests of private organizations; d. EU measures for a Lisbon’s agenda really effective in procedures and innovation politics; e. Media, since they should offer reliable information to sensitize citizens on the meaning of scientific communication, and on the real potential of a competitive scientific publication market. Scholarly communication consists in the dissemination of the results of the research coming from universities or other institutions, and scientific publication system is part of this circle. One of the aims of Lisbon’s Agenda process in 2000 was to lead economy in service of knowledge through the constitution of an European Research Space (SER). Open Access is part of these strategies for the renewal of this scientific communication system. European Commission published a study in which scientific European publishing system is examined. The data emerged from this European study are remarkable: 23000 journals worldwide, 1400 articles per year, only 3000 Open Access scientific journals. The distribution of journals within the scientific publishing market is extremely distorted, since Elsevier and Springer possess approximately 2000 journals each. Moreover, European Commision opened the door to a wide consultation and a debate, to discuss some of the tendecies on the basis of the Green Book. New perspectives for the European Research Space: define more precisely the aims and provide incentives for the formulation of new ideas