Public funded research and Open Access: Perspectives and policies

There are several arguments for promoting the necessity of Open Access (OA). Public funded research can be considered as a common good. From that point of view the accessibility of scientific information is crucial as a political instrument in strengthening a democratic society and to improve the knowledge driven society by efficient and effective distribution of scientific information An important question is what are governments doing to promote OA? Do they consider OA as a priority on their political agenda? There is also the issue of accessibility of public funded research to improve existing systems of knowledge sharing among scientists. This article analyses and reviews these issues relative to the present situation in the USA and several European countries (UK, France Germany). Ongoing initiatives will be addressed that strengthen the OA movement in general. The last issue to be addressed is the impact of open access journals. An analysis will show that the "business-model" of OA is not a blind alley.Includes: Conference preprint, Powerpoint presentation, Abstract and Biographical notes, Pratt student commentaryXAInternationa