[Fwd: [okn] two workshops on open access at MSSRF in May]

[Irfan Khan <khania2@super.net.pk>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[okn] two workshops on open access at MSSRF in May
Date: 	Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:15:29 +0530
From: 	Subbiah Arunachalam <arun@mssrf.res.in>
Reply-To: 	Open Knowledge Workspace <okn@dgroups.org>
To: 	Open Knowledge Workspace <okn@dgroups.org>
CC: 	c3net@dgroups.org



Here is an announcement on two workshops on open access we will be 
holding at MSSRF in early May. It is restricted to participants from 
India. 
Arun



M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Third Cross Street, Taramani Instituional Area, Chennai 600 113
Tel: 044 2254 1229, 2254 2791     Fax: 044 2254 1319

Workshop on Open Access

Overview

All scientists need to publish their findings. Indeed, research is 
incomplete as long as it remains unpublished. The last few years have 
witnessed the unprecedented rise in the subscription costs of journals 
and even well-endowed institutions in rich countries find it difficult 
to retain journal subscriptions. The situation in developing countries 
like India is even worse. Besides, others in the rest of the world do 
not really read much of the work that we do in India. What is more, if 
our scientists publish their papers in expensive journals, then even 
other Indian scientists do not read them, as not many Indian 
institutions may subscribe to those journals. It is for this reason that 
the open access (OA) movement is gaining ground around the world - both 
in the advanced countries and in the developing countries. Indeed, OA 
will be of much greater advantage to India than to the western 
countries.     
Physicists have been placing their preprints and postprints for well 
over 13 years in a centralized archive called arXiv, which has more than 
15 mirror sites including one located in India (Matscience, Chennai). 
There are several other services such as Cogprints (for cognitive 
sciences), CiteSeer (for computer science) and RePEc (for economics). 
Currently, institutional archives are favoured, as they work to satisfy 
the felt needs of both individual scientists and their institutions. 
There are at least three sets of software available, all of them free, 
to set up such interoperable institutional archives. This workshop aims 
to help Indian scientists (representing general and agricultural 
universities and government laboratories under the various councils and 
departments) to acquire the skills necessary to be able to set up and 
maintain institutional open archives. This workshop will provide 
training in Eprints software developed at the University of Southampton 
and the Open Archives Interoperability protocol.   
There is great interest in open access around the world. In the USA, 
Congressman Martin Sabo has introduced a bill suggesting that findings 
of all publicly funded research must be made freely available to all. In 
the UK, the Parliament has appointed a committee to inquire current and 
potentially useful practices in science publishing. Several discussion 
lists are actively promoting exchange of views on open access. The 
Budapest Open Access Initiative is providing funds to promote open 
access initiatives.

In India, INSA devoted a whole day for a seminar on open access at its 
annual meeting held at NCL, Pune, in late December 2003. Indian Academy 
of Sciences, Bangalore, held two workshops on open access journals in 
March 2002.     
The Workshop

On a suggestion from Prof. M S Valiathan, President of the Indian 
National Science Academy, the Bioinformatics Centre of the M S 
Swaminathan Research Foundation will be holding two identical three-day 
workshops with a view to developing a cadre of open access experts in 
Indian higher educational institutions and government laboratories. We 
expect that before the end of the year at least a dozen institutions 
will have their own institutional archives up and running. There will be 
20-24 participants in each workshop. Each participant and the faculty 
will have an Internet-connected computer on his/her desk. 
Dates: 2-4 May 2004 and 6-8 May 2004

Venue:  M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Sambasivan Auditorium

The Faculty: The workshop will be conducted by the following four 
experts, known for their commitment to promoting this technology 
worldwide: Prof. Leslie Chan of the University of Toronto and Bioline 
International, Dr Leslie Carr of the University of Southampton, Dr D K 
Sahu of MedKnow Publications, Mumbai, and Dr T B Rajashekar of the 
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. All of them have considerable 
hands-on experience in open access.

Participants: Higher educational institutions and government research 
laboratories (under the different Councils and Departments) may nominate 
candidates in the prescribed form. [Heads of these institutions may 
kindly ensure that an institutional archive is set up within three 
months after the conclusion of the workshop]. 4048 candidates will be 
selected. Participants will either be scientists or be librarians. The 
important thing is they should be computer savvy and committed to the 
cause of open access and be able to persuade scientists (faculty and 
students) in their respective institutions to place their research 
papers in the archives.

Guest speakers: We are inviting Prof. M S Swaminathan, Prof. M S 
Valiathan, Dr R A Mashelkar and Prof. P Balaram to give guest lectures 
(on how they, as working scientists, view open access). Two of them will 
address the participants of the first workshop and the other two the 
second workshop.

Workshop Coordinator: Subbiah Arunachalam, Distinguished Fellow, MSSRF, 
Chennai. His email address is <arun@mssrf.res.in>. Mr S Senthilkumaran 
and colleagues from the Informatics Division and Ms R V Bhavani of MSSRF 
will provide technical and managerial support for the event.

Nominations of participants may please be sent to Mr S Senthilkumaran, 
Associate Director, Informatics, MSSRF, Chennai 600 113, India. His 
email address is <senthil@mssrf.res.in>.

All participants will be provided guesthouse accommodation and all 
meals. A few travel grants (First class or Second A/C class by Express 
train) will be made available, depending on funds available.

Some Relevant Documents
The Bethesda Statement
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/bethesda.htm 
<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/bethesda.htm>

Wellcome Trust, "Scientific Publishing: A Position Statement by the 
Wellcome Trust in Support of Open Access Publishing,"

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/1/awtvispolpub.html

Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and 
Humanities
http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html

Subbiah Arunachalam: India's march towards open access
http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=243&language=1 
<http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=243&language=1> 



M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Third Cross Street, Taramani Instituional Area, Chennai 600 113
Tel: 044 2254 1229, 2254 2791     Fax: 044 2254 1319

Workshop on Open Access
Nomination

Institution Name and Address:



No. of papers from the Institution annually:

Name of the candidate:

Designation

Date of birth:

Qualification:

Familiarity with Computers and Internet:


Membership in Discussion Groups:


Past experience in Electronic Publishing:


Familiarity with Open Access:



Preferred dates:        2-4 May  (Workshop 1)  /  6-8 May (Workshop 2)

Travel grant:               Needed  /  Not needed





Date:

Signature of the recommending authority:

Signature of the candidate:



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