[Forwarding from Paola Bongiovani, with permission. --Peter Suber.]
Dear Peter Suber: We want to let you know about OA progress in Argentina. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina have a strong interest in developing efficient scientific information systems that maximize the impact of public investments in research. For that purpose we are promoting the establishment of a legislation that will mandate research funders and institutions the creation of open access repositories to deposit the scientific and technological outputs produced by institutions and researchers part of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI) and publicly funded. The bill was introduced in the Argentinean Congress by members of Argentina's House of Representatives and is being discussed http://www1.hcdn.gov.ar/proyxml/expediente.asp?fundamentos=si&numexp=1927-D-2011 Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding proposed legislation (we attach a summary). With kind regards, Paola C. Bongiovani National System of Digital Repositories Subsecretaría de Coordinación Institucional Secretaría de Articulación Científico Tecnológica Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva Av. Cordoba 831, 7mo piso (1054) Ciudad A. de Buenos Aires Tel.: (54 11) 4891-8300 int. 6746 Fax: (54 11) 4891-8907 ---------- Summary National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI). Creation of Institutional Digital Open Access Repositories The proposed bill requires that public bodies and institutions of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI) that receive funding from the Federal Government, to develop open access institutional digital repositories to deposit the scientific and technological production resulting from conducting research which passed through a quality assessment process, regardless if it has been published or not. It also requires these public institutions of science and technology sector funded by the National Government to establish policies for public access to primary research data through open access institutional digital repositories or National Systems for Large Instruments and Databases Data Portals, as well as institutional policies for management and long-term preservation. It establishes that any grant or funding from government agencies and National Science and Technology research projects that result in the generation of primary data, documents and / or publications, must contain within its a contract terms the presentation of a management plan according to the specificities of the subject area, in the case of data and, in all cases, a plan to ensure public availability of results. Proposed legislation defines the need for institutional digital repositories to be compatible with internationally adopted standards for interoperability and ensure free access to their documents and data over the Internet or other information technologies appropriate for the purpose, providing the necessary conditions for protection of the rights of the institution and the authors. Regarding researchers, technologists, professors, postdoctoral fellows and master’s and doctoral students whose research activity is financed with public funds, it establishes the obligation to deposit or expressly authorize the submission of a copy, of the final version of scientific and/or technological production published or accepted for publication and / or has gone through a quality assessment process by a competent authority or jurisdiction over the matter, in open access institutional digital repositories, within a period not exceeding six months from the date of their official publication or approval. In turn, it requires that primary research data are deposited in institutional repositories or digital archives, owned or or shared, and to be publicly available no later than five years from the time of collection, according to the policies established by the institutions as explained above, being able to exclude the diffusion of those primary data in cases where they should remain confidential for strategic or national security reasons. The bill provides for exemptions from the above obligations: If the scientific and technological production and primary data were protected by industrial property rights and / or previous third parties’ agreements, authors should provide and allow public access to the metadata of such intellectual works and / or primary data, providing complete information on them and to provide access to the full content from the time of its release. It defines that the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation is the executive authority of this Act and establishes that violations of the provisions of this proposed law by the actors (institutions or individuals) turn them not eligible for public financial support for future research.
