Archive:Press releases/Wikimedia Foundation adopts Open Access Policy to support free knowledge: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively

Newer edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 00:59, 19 March 2015

Wikimedia Foundation adopts Open Access Policy to support free knowledge

Future research supported by the Wikimedia Foundation to be made freely available

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ''Future research supported by the Wikimedia Foundation to be made freely available''
-The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to making knowledge of all forms freely available to the world. Beginning today, our new <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Open_access_policy"><b>Open Access Policy</b></a> will ensure that all research work produced with support from the Wikimedia Foundation will be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Open_Access_Initiative#Definition_of_open_access">openly available</a> to the public and reusable on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites. We are pleased to announce this new policy at the 18th ACM conference on <a href="http://cscw.acm.org/2015/">Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing</a> (CSCW 2015).
-“Wikimedia is committed to nurturing open knowledge for all, unrestrained by cost barriers,” said <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_Tretikov">Lila Tretikov</a>, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “The Wikimedia movement has a longstanding commitment to open access practices. Today, we are excited to formalize that commitment with this policy.”
-Over the past decade Wikipedia has been the subject of <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2021326">hundreds</a> of academic studies on topics such as <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/532246/how-wikipedia-data-is-revolutionizing-flu-forecasting/">flu forecasting</a>, the influence of major <a href="http://language.media.mit.edu/visualizations/wikipedia">global languages</a>, and Wikipedia’s own <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geographic_imbalance">geographic imbalances</a>. The Wikimedia Foundation has made this research possible through a commitment to making Wikipedia’s data open and accessible.
-Open access scholarship is central to Wikimedia's mission to empower people around the world to participate in knowledge creation. Access to these open sources is critical to ensuring that articles on Wikipedia are reliable, accurate, and reflect our ever-evolving understanding of the world. Paywalls and copyright restrictions too often prevent the use of academic research in this effort.
-Our new Open Access Policy builds on previous efforts led by the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_Foundation_support">Research Committee</a>, members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Open_Access">WikiProject Open Access</a>, and the Foundation’s <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-learn">grantmaking team</a>. It will ensure that all research the Wikimedia Foundation supports through grants, equipment, or research collaboration is made widely accessible and reusable.  Research, data, and code developed through these collaborations will be made available in Open Access venues and under a <a href="http://freedomdefined.org/">free license</a>, in keeping with the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission to support free knowledge. The policy sets guiding principles that govern future collaborations between researchers and the Foundation, we wrote a set of <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Open_access_policy/FAQ">frequently asked questions</a> to provide guidance and best practices on the applicability of the policy.
-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Joseph">Heather Joseph</a>, the executive director of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarly_Publishing_and_Academic_Resources_Coalition">SPARC</a>, an international open access coalition of research libraries, commented on the policy launch: "The Wikimedia Foundation continues to lead by example in its efforts to democratize access to knowledge. By adopting an Open Access policy to make all outputs of the research that it supports freely accessible and fully useable to the public, the Foundation will help speed the pace of discovery and innovation around the globe."
-The Wikimedia Foundation is proud to join the growing ranks of leading institutions with open access policies.
-&nbsp;
-<i><strong>Related Links:</strong></i>
-• <i><a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Open_access_policy">Wikimedia Open Access Policy</i>
-• <i><a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Open_access_policy_FAQ">Frequently Asked Questions</a></i>
-<i><strong>Acknowledgments:</strong></i>
-<i>Many thanks to members of the Legal, Research &amp; Data, and Grantmaking teams, and in particular <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:MBrar_(WMF)">Manprit Brar</a> and <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:LZia_(WMF)">Leila Zia</a> for their work on the policy. We would also like to thank all the researchers and Open Access advocates who provided helpful feedback on an earlier version of the policy, including Daniel Mietchen, Melissa Hagemann, Heather Joseph, and Peter Suber.</i>
-'''About the Wikimedia Foundation'''
-* [https://wikimediafoundation.org/ https://wikimediafoundation.org]
-* [https://blog.wikimedia.org/ https://blog.wikimedia.org/]
-The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia consists of more than 34 million articles in 288 languages. Every month, tens of thousands of active volunteers contribute to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. With nearly half a billion monthly users, projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation are one of the most popular web properties in the world. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
-'''Wikimedia Foundation Press Contact'''
-Katherine Maher
-* +1 415-839-6885 ext 6633
-* press{{@}}wikimedia.org