IBL News | New York
An MIT report, published on October 17, urged its community of researchers to increase the open sharing of publications, data, software, and educational materials.
The MIT Open Access task force, convened by Provost Martin Schmidt on July 2017, was charged with exploring how the institute should update and revise current policies. Now, the final recommendations research concludes that openly sharing research and educational materials is key to the MIT mission of advancing knowledge.
The task force also calls for heads of departments, labs, and centers to develop discipline-specific plans to encourage and support open sharing.
“Scholarship serves humanity best when it is available to everyone,” Libraries Director Chris Bourg, co-chair of the task force with Hal Abelson, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science said on MIT News.
In an email to the MIT community, Provost Martin Schmidt announced that he would appoint an implementation team this fall to prioritize and enact the task force’s recommendations. He has asked Chris Bourg to convene and lead this team.
The MIT libraries have already begun working with the departments of Linguistics and Philosophy and Brain and Cognitive Sciences to develop sample plans.
