1.
RAISING POLICY AWARENESS ABOUT
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION LITERACY IN THE
EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: A FIRST SET
OF OPTIONS
Carla Basili
Ceris Institute, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
c.basili@ceris.cnr.it
Stéphane Goldstein
Research Information Network, London, UK.
stephane.goldstein@researchinfonet.org

2.
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /1
“Knowledge is the currency of the new economy.”
Commission Communication COM(2012) 392 - A Reinforced European
Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth
An important premise: scientific information does not just consist of
journal articles, books and conference proceedings – it also includes
research data, statistical databases, patent databases , and any other
form of sharable scientific result
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 2

3.
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /2
THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
“In order to become an increasingly competitive knowledge-based economy,
Europe must improve the production of knowledge through research, its
dissemination through education, and its application through innovation. All
research builds on former work, and depends on scientists’ possibilities to
access and share scientific publications and research data. The rapid and
widespread dissemination of research results can help accelerate innovation
and avoid duplication of research efforts, although some delay for the first
use by researchers or for commercial purposes can be justified.”
EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Scientific information in the digital age: access,
dissemination and preservation [COM(2007) 56]
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4.
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION /3
European Commission COM (2012) 401 - Towards better access to
scientific information: boosting the benefits of public investments in
research
“Access to scientific information is an essential requirement for
successful research and boosting innovation, and therefore for
Europe's competitiveness as well.”
(Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on COM(2012)401)
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5.
MILESTONES OF EU POLICIES FOR OPEN ACCESS /1
Preparatory activities (2006)
•Publication of EU-commissioned study on the economic and technical evolution
of the scientific publication markets in Europe
Press release: Commission study addresses Europe's scientific publication system'
Public consultation 31 March to 15 June 2006
Institutional engagement with OA (2007)
• Communication on Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination
and preservation COM(2007) 56 final
• Council Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age: access,
dissemination and preservation – recommendation to the Commission to
experiment with Open Access to scientific results from projects funded by EU
research framework programmes
• ERC (European Research Council) Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access –
which provide for the OBLIGATION to deposit in Open Access disciplinary or
institutional repositories, within a maximum period of time defined by 6 or 12
months after the formal publication.
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6.
MILESTONES OF EU POLICIES FOR OPEN ACCESS /2
Launch of Open Access Pilot in FP7 (2008)
Launch of Open Access Pilot in FP7 in 7 research areas constituting the 20% of the
total funding amount in FP7 – This initiative is formalised by the Commission
Decision (C (2008 (C(2008) 4408). on the adoption and a modification of special
clauses applicable to the model Grant Agreement of FP7 (requirement FP7
projects to comply with the Open Access strategy)
July 2012
• Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information
• Communication Towards better access to scientific information. Boosting
the benefits of public investments in research
December 2013
Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in
Horizon 2020
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 6

7.
MILESTONES OF EUROPEAN POLICIES FOR RESEARCH DATA
A number of initiatives have been specifically devoted (by the EC and other
influential bodies) to research data and listed below in chronological order.
• OECD 2007 –Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from
Public Funding
• October 2010 – Riding the wave. How Europe can gain from the rising tide
of scientific data - Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Scientific
Data .A submission to the European Commission
• December 2011 – COM(2011) 882 final - Open data. An engine for
innovation, growth and transparent governance, Brussels, 12.12.2011
• July 2013 – European Commission public consultation on open research
data.
• From 2013, European Commission support for the Research Data Alliance
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 7

8.
TRANSFORMATION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
TRANSFORMATION OF INFORMATION LITERACY
The acquisition of know-how about the scholarly communication
environment and processes must be recognised as a vital element of
information literacy
Scholarly Communication is in period of deep transformation
therefore
Also IL must transform to include an evolving meaning of Scholarly
Communication
N.B. the ACRL report “Intersections” is a good starting point but should be
enlarged to include researchers as target and all the categories of research
results.
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9.
ONGOING POLICY TRENDS FOR TRAINING RESEARCHERS
Under FP7 Work Programme 2013 – Capacities part 5, Science and
Society, an important relevant theme: “Encouraging the debate on
information dissemination, including access to scientific results and
the future of scientific publications, taking also into account measures
to improve access by the public”
Two action lines:
• Upstream support to the definition, development and
implementation of OA strategies and policies and to their
coordination in the European Research Area
• Downstream training on OA in the European Research Area
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 9

10.
PROJECT ON TRAINING IN OPEN SCIENCE
Downstream training on OA in the European Research Area:
• “… this topic supports actions with a clear European added value
that are aimed at developing, improving or consolidating training
activities at downstream level and reach the highest number of
stakeholders in the European Research Area. Actions proposed
must be aimed at training stakeholders with a view to permitting
them and/or their organisations to fully comprehend policy and
practical aspects of open access to scientific information. “
• FOSTER (‘Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research’)
funded for two years, 2014-2016
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 10

11.
EC PRIORITIES FOR INFORMATION POLICY IN THE ERA
Information Policies within the European Research Area can be
summarised along three complementary strands:
• open access to the results of publicly funded research activities,
• effective transfer of research results,
• development of a European knowledge market for patents and
licensing.
Recognised as contributions to the development of the Innovation
Union [Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative, Innovation Union
COM(2010)546 ]
Are distinct policy lines summarising EU expectations for what
concerns scientific information and research behaviours.
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12.
WHERE IS THE PLACE FOR
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION LITERACY?
Against all the above, this seems to be the right time to support the
timely and wide dissemination of SIL in the policies for scientific
information in Europe.
Open Access strategy has been already enlarged to encompass every
form of scientific results, but
a further step is required: to make researchers able to fully exploit the
available knowledge base through the right training.
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13.
ESTABLISHING A EUROPEAN COALITION FOR SIL
European Network for Information Literacy (EnIL) and, in the UK, the
InformAll initiative, can help to influence the policy agenda, joining
their forces and commitments.
To this end a common research agenda is going to be defined,
together with the planning of a set of concrete actions to solicit policy
commitment on the topic.
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14.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Within the current Knowledge Economy paradigm, improving access to
research results constitutes clearly a crucial goal.
This rationale forms the basis of the EC policies for Scientific
Information, where nonetheless the IL dimension appears
disregarded.
EC policy effort towards scientific information is currently particularly
intense and therefore this could be the right time to raise awareness
about the pivotal role of scientific information literacy.
EnIL and InformAll are planning to co-operate towards this goal, and
we would welcome partners across Europe to help us develop our
networking capacity.
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15.
REFERENCES /1
Association of College and Research Libraries (2013) – Intersections of Scholarly Communication and
Information Literacy – Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment –
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/Intersections.pdf
Council of the European Union (2007) – Council Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age: access,
dissemination and preservation –
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/council_conclusions_nov2007_6592.pdf
European Commission (2013) – Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in
Horizon 2020 – http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-
hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf
European Commission (2013) – Report of the European Commission Public Consultation on Open Research Data
– https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/Report_2013-07-OpenResearchData-
Consultation-FINAL1.pdf
European Commission, C(2012) 4526 – Work Programme 2013 (Capacities, Part 5, Science in Society), see in
particular area 5.1.3.3 - http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/fp7/134006/s-wp-201301_en.pdf
European Commission, C(2012) 4890 - Commission Recommendation on access to and preservation of
scientific information – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/
document_library/pdf_06/recommendation-access-and-preservation-scientific-information_en.pdf
European Commission, COM(2007) 56 – Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and
preservation – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/communication-
022007_en.pdf
European Commission, COM(2010) 546 – Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative, Innovation Union -
http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/innovation-union-communication_en.pdf
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 15

16.
REFERENCES /2
European Commission, COM(2011) 882 – Open data: an engine for innovation, growth and transparent
governance – http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0882:FIN:EN:PDF
European Commission, COM(2012) 392 – A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and
Growth – http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/era-communication_en.pdf
European Commission , COM (2012) 401 – Towards better access to scientific information: boosting the benefits
of public investments in research – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/
document_library/pdf_06/era-communication-towards-better-access-to-scientific-information_en.pdf
European Commission, DG-Research (2006) – Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific
publication markets in Europe – http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/scientific-publication-study_
en.pdf
European Research Council (2007) – Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access –
http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/erc_scc_guidelines_open_access.pdf
FOSTER - http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/
High level Expert Group on Scientific Data (2010) , submission to the European Commission – Riding the wave:
how Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data – http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/
docs/hlg-sdi-report.pdf
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2007) – OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access
to Research Data from Public Funding – http://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/38500813.pdf
ECIL 2014 - 22 October 2014 C. Basili - S. Goldstein 16

17.
Thank you for your attention!
EnIL (European Network on Information Literacy)
http://enil.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/
InformAll
www.informall.eu
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