[sc-announce] A Wellcome future for science -- Science Commons blog

Donna Wentworth dwentworth at creativecommons.org
Mon Apr 28 13:46:54 EDT 2008


A Wellcome future for science

April 28th, 2008<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/28/a-wellcome-future-for-science/>by
dwentworth

When he gives talks for research foundations about ways to spur
innovation<http://precedings.nature.com/documents/1808/version/1>,
John Wilbanks <http://creativecommons.org/about/people/#34> often shares the
story of John Snow <http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html>, the
anesthesiologist who in the mid-1800s used
maps<http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/albionterraceoutbreak_1849.html>to
figure out how a series of cholera epidemics were spreading. By
marking
the precise locations where the outbreaks occurred, Snow was able to
demonstrate that they clustered around water sources, showing that the
"morbid poison" was spreading through tainted water.

What does this have to do with modern-day research foundations? If you
envision research outcomes as pieces of a map — in biomedical research, a
map of the human body — you can easily see the advantages of ensuring that
when they are published, they are published
openly<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/overview.htm>.
A single research paper may not hold the answer to stopping an epidemic or
curing a disease; placed in context, however, it could make finding the
solution trivial.

On that note, below is the first profile in our
series<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/02/voices-from-the-future-of-science/>on
people and organizations working at the frontiers of open
science <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science>: a look at the
pioneering work of the UK-based Wellcome Trust <http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/>.

The Wellcome Trust <http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/>, a global leader among
charity organizations, is working to keep the results of the research it
funds "widely and freely available to all." Importantly, it defines this
freedom explicitly in terms that embrace the advantages that computers and
network technology give us. The most recent update to its position statement
on open access<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Policy-and-position-statements/WTD002766.htm>encourages
— and in cases where it has paid an open access fee, requires —
that funded research is licensed so that it can be "freely *copied and
re-used* (for example for *text and data-mining* purposes), provided that
such uses are fully attributed" (emphasis, mine). This might read as a minor
parenthetical; in fact, the explicit freedom to use computer technology to
derive value from the literature can help make the difference between having
a map and continually, painstakingly redrawing it.

This is just one example of the smart choices the Wellcome Trust has been
making to cultivate what it
calls<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Policy-and-position-statements/WTD002766.htm>a
"richer research culture." Below is a brief overview of the Trust's
trail-blazing work over the past five years (with thanks to Peter
Suber<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/hometoc.htm>for his meticulous
documentation of the work in the Timeline
of the Open Access Movement<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/timeline.htm>
):

   - *2003*: The Wellcome Trust commissions a
report<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/scipub/index.htm>asking how the
economics of scientific publishing impact the long-term
   interests of the research community. The findings are released in tandem
   with a landmark position
statement<http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2995.html>supporting
open and unrestricted access to the published output of research.
   Writes Suber<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/newsletter/10-02-03.htm>:
   "When a foundation awards a research grant, it is showing its belief that
   the results of that research will be useful to the wider world. With its
   commitment to open access, WT is showing its belief that open access to
   those research results will make them even more useful."
   - *2004*: The Trust
announces<http://listserver.sigmaxi.org/sc/wa.exe?A2=ind04&L=american-scientist-open-access-forum&D=1&F=Pl&P=94052>its
intention to establish a European PubMed Central, and to require that
   its grantees deposit an electronic copy of research publications in PubMed
   Central no later than six months after publication.
   - *2005*: The Trust makes
history<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/newsletter/10-02-05.htm#wellcome>by
becoming the world's first research funding agency to implement an
open
   access mandate.
   - *2007*: In January, the UK PubMed Central (UK PMC<http://ukpmc.ac.uk/>)
   is launched, a collaboration among of the Trust and nine other leading UK
   organizations. Wellcome Trust Director Mark Walport
promises<http://www.british-library.uk/news/2007/pressrelease20070105.html>that
the launch is "only the start" of an effort to develop the site as the
   resource of choice for the international biomedical research community. In
   the spring, the Trust signals its support for sharing preliminary research
   and findings,
joining<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2007/06/18/nature-launches-nature-precedings/>the
British
   Library <http://www.bl.uk/>, the European Bioinformatics Institute (
   EBI <http://www.ebi.ac.uk/>) and Science Commons as a partner in Nature
   Precedings <http://precedings.nature.com/>
   - *2008*: The UK PMC holds a workshop on further developing the site.
   Its workshop report <http://ukpmc.ac.uk/workshop_report.pdf> [PDF]
   hints at future developments to enhance the usefulness of the literature; in
   a summary of a discussion about text mining, Dr. Sophia
Ananiadou<http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/sophia.ananiadou/>explains
that semantic markup helps text mining tools work "optimally," and
   would allow researchers to "use a simple natural language query that will
   retrieve specific *facts* matching that query, rather than just a set
   of whole documents to be read."

The Trust shows no signs of stopping pushing the envelope, making strategy
and policy decisions that reflect its ongoing
commitment<http://listserver.sigmaxi.org/sc/wa.exe?A2=ind08&L=american-scientist-open-access-forum&D=1&O=D&F=l&S=&P=30672>to
maximizing the "downstream" impact of research.

We can't wait to see what's next.

................
Donna Wentworth
Communications Specialist
Science Commons
http://sciencecommons.org
dwentworth at creativecommons.org <kaitlin at creativecommons.org>
................
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