In yesterday’s post, we mentioned that the White House OSTP recently issued a memo mandating public access to federally funded research, including the related data sets.  So what’s so great about open data anyway?

Ensuring open access to the data behind the literature will play a key role in seeing that the scholarly communication system evolves in a way that supports the needs of scholars and the academic enterprise as a whole.”   SPARC: Open Data

According to Dan Gezelter, of The OpenScience Project, Open Science encompasses four fundamental goals:

  • Transparency in experimental methodology, observation, and collection of data
  • Public availability and reusability of scientific data
  • Public accessibility and transparency of scientific communication
  • Using web-based tools to facilitate scientific collaboration

 –e-Science Portal for New England Librarians: Open Science

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And what about the humanities?

  • As reported in an article from Inside Higher Education, many humanists see tagged, linked open data as the way to provide for cross-disciplinary research
  • Using open data would increase the relevance of cross-disciplinary research to broader communities, including the general public
  • The ability to use open data from various fields would open up new avenues of research and collaboration within the humanities and beyond

We hope you had a great Open Access Week! Visit the Scholarly Communication at Tufts website for the latest news on open access, author’s rights, and copyright.

 

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