SPARC's new Open Data resource

[Alison Buckholtz <alison@arl.org>]

For Immediate Release
October 24, 2005

For more information, contact:
Alison Buckholtz, SPARC, alison@arl.org

NEW SPARC DISCUSSION LIST ADVANCES OPEN DATA DIALOGUE

Expanded availability of scientific research data on the Internet to be
explored

Washington, DC -- SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition) has launched the new SPARC-OpenData e-mail discussion list,
which will explore issues of access to digital data associated with
peer-reviewed science, technical and medical (STM) research.

According to the list's founder and moderator, Peter Murray-Rust of the
Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics at the University of
Cambridge (UK), "The emerging Open Data movement shares many goals with
the Open Access and Open Source movements, but encompasses its own
distinct issues that are in need of examination by the scientific
community. This list is intended to facilitate that important discussion."

Many advocates of Open Data believe that, although there are substantial
potential benefits from sharing and reusing digital data upon which
scientific advances are built, today much of it is being lost or
underutilized because of legal, technological and other barriers. The new
discussion list will enable participants to debate issues of access to and
re-use of research data that researchers or funders wish to see available
for use by others. The list=92s emphasis is on defining the scope of Open
Data and collecting examples of desirable and undesirable practices.

"SPARC's interest in Open Data is an extension of our interest in open
digital archives such as institutional repositories, Open Access
publishing of research articles, and library support of science in the
digital environment," said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC.
"We are pleased and honored to be able to work with Dr. Murray-Rust to
broaden the discussion of Open Data."

To subscribe to the SPARC-OpenData discussion list, send a message to:

<SPARC-OpenData-on@arl.org>.

###

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and SPARC
Europe are an international alliance of more than 300 academic and
research libraries working to unleash the potential of the Internet to
enhance scholarly communication. SPARC advocacy, educational, and
publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of
research. SPARC is located on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc; SPARC
Europe is at http://www.sparceurope.org.

________________
Alison Buckholtz
SPARC Consultant
alison@arl.org
phone: 202 251 7845