The World Bank announced that it will implement a new Open Access policy
for its research outputs and knowledge products, effective July 1,
2012. The new policy builds on recent efforts to increase access to
information at the World Bank and to make its research as widely
available as possible. As the first phase of this policy, the Bank
launched today a new Open Knowledge Repository and adopted a set of Creative Commons copyright licenses.
The
new Open Access policy, which will be rolled out in phases in the
coming year, formalizes the Bank’s practice of making research and
knowledge freely available online. Now anybody is free to use, re-use
and redistribute most of the Bank's knowledge products and research
outputs for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
“Knowledge is power,” World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said. “Making
our knowledge widely and readily available will empower others to come
up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Our new Open Access
policy is the natural evolution for a World Bank that is opening up more
and more."
The policy will also apply to Bank research published with third party publishers including the institution’s two journals—World Bank Research Observer (WBRO) and World Bank Economic Review (WBER)—which
are published by Oxford University Press, but in accordance with the
terms of third party publisher agreements. The Bank will respect
publishing embargoes, but expects the amount of time it takes for
externally published Bank content to be included in its institutional
repository to diminish over time.
In
support of the new Open Access Policy, the World Bank is adopting a
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) copyright license for content
published by the Bank, the most accommodating of all licenses offered by
Creative Commons. It allows anyone to distribute, reuse, and build upon
the Bank’s published work, even commercially, as long as the Bank is
given credit for the original creation. The CC BY license helps the Bank
to maximize its impact while simultaneously protecting the Bank's
reputation and the integrity of its content.
World
Bank content published by third party publishers will be available in
the Open Knowledge Repository under a more restrictive Creative Commons
license. The new copyright practice goes into effect today.
While
much of the Bank’s research outputs and knowledge products have been
available for free on the institution’s web site, and on other channels,
the new Open Access policy marks a significant shift in how Bank
content is disseminated and shared. For the first time, the Bank will
have an aggregated portal to research and knowledge products, where the
metadata is curated, the content is discoverable and easily downloaded,
and third parties are free to use, reuse, and build on it.
“Allowing unfettered access to the Bank’s trove of development knowledge is commendable”, said Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons. “For researchers, it increases the visibility, usage, and impact of their work. For users, it allows for the discovery of knowledge and encourages the open interchange of ideas.”
The
Open Knowledge Repository, the centerpiece of the policy, is the new
home for all of the World Bank’s research outputs and knowledge
products. The Repository — available at openknowledge.worldbank.org − currently
contains works from 2009-2012 (more than 2,100 books and papers) across
a wide range of topics and all regions of the world. This includes the World Development Report,
and other annual flagship publications, academic books, practitioner
volumes, and the Bank’s publicly disclosed country studies and
analytical reports. The repository also contains journal articles from
2007-2010 from the two World Bank journals WBRO and WBER.
The
repository will be updated regularly with new publications and research
products, as well as with content published prior to 2009. Starting in
2013, the repository will also provide links to datasets associated with
research. While the vast majority of the works are published in
English, over time translated editions will also be added.
The
Open Knowledge Repository is interoperable with other repositories and
will support optimal discoverability and re-usability of the content by
complying with Dublin Core metadata standards and the Open Archives
Initiatives protocol for metadata harvesting.
“This
new policy is a natural extension of our other efforts to make the Bank
more open, including the Open Data Initiative and the landmark Access
to Information Policy”, said Caroline Anstey, World Bank Managing Director. “Anyone
with Internet access will have much greater access to the World Bank’s
knowledge. And for those without internet access, there is now unlimited
potential for intermediaries to reuse and repurpose our content for new
languages, platforms and media, further democratizing development by
getting information into the hands of all those who may benefit from
it.”
The
new Open Access policy and launch of the Open Knowledge Repository
represent the next major development in the World Bank’s Open
Development Agenda. The first two initiatives were:
· Open
Data Initiative (launched in April 2010): a range of reforms enabling
free access to more than 7,000 development indicators, as well as a
wealth of information on World Bank projects and finances, and
· Access
to Information Policy (launched in July 2010): a groundbreaking change
in how the World Bank makes information available to the public.
Contacts:
In Washington: Yoko Kobayashi (202) 458-2624, ykobayashi2@worldbank.org
For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org
The Open Knowledge Repository is freely available at openknowledge.worldbank.org
More information about Creative Commons can be found at www.creativecommons.org.
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Coutrtesy: http://go.worldbank.org/VOS0JQ0VK0
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