No. 7 · March 2007

Scientific evaluation

Evaluation of pilot call proposals


Selection of proposals

Eight projects to be negotiated


Organic Eprints

Use of the open access archive


Notes & correspondences

QLIF congress in Hohenheim
Workshop on Organic Eprints
Workshop on self-sufficiency
Food Security
EurSafe 2007
Challenges and limitations


Front

Organic Eprints

Use of the open access archive

Organic Eprints is a rapidly growing repository for research contributions in organic farming. Presently, the archive holds 6000 contributions that are freely searchable (figure 1). Every day, more than 5000 daily visitors consult the archive (figure 2). Thus, by depositing contributions in Organic Eprints visibility and accessibility of research results is highly improved.
Figure 1. Deposits in Organic Eprints Figure 2. Number of daily visits

Regular use and deposition of communications in the Organic Eprints archive is an efficient means of sharing knowledge and stimulates the interest in ongoing project activities. For projects with the size and complexity of QLIF it further offers a means of increased coherency between different subprojects as current research progress can be followed and integrated in complementary projects.

During the 3rd QLIF Congres in Hohenheim an open workshop on Organic Eprints will be held on Thursday 22 March at 10.30-12.00. The workshop will be an introduction to the use and perspectives of Organic Eprints. Questions addressed will include:

  • How to deposit your contributions
  • Editorial procedures – how are contributions handled
  • Copyright issues – what and when can deposits be done
  • Integration of Organic Eprints in project management and project websites
  • Organic Eprints as a tool for evaluating research programmes
  • Use of advanced search options and e-mail alerts


Scientific publication in the EU

In a more general sense, development and use of open-access repositories for dissemination of scientific research results is gaining increased attention among stakeholders and financing bodies. Recently, for example, the EU Commission communicated an overview of actions planned the stimulate access, dissemination and preservation of scientific information in the digital age.

Here, initiatives to support open access a digital repositories were discussed. For further information, please follow the links in Box 1.

Box 1. Commission actions regarding the scientific publication system in the EU

Following the publication of a study on the scientific publication system in 2006, the Commission in February 2007 held a major conference in Brussels to launch the debate among interested stakeholders. The Commission plans to support experiments with open access in research projects that have been recently launched, among other initiatives.

Further, in a recent communication (pdf) of 14/2 2007, the European Commission stressed the importance of scientific information for research and innovation and identified several measures that could improve access to scientific publications using new digital technologies.