Thanks Tito, Pete and Shani...
There is a formal comment period open until May 6. The U.S. government is
accepting letters or briefs from any individual or organization.
I've shared my own in the hopes others will do something similar.
If it hasn't already, the Wikimedia Foundation's Research and Public Policy
teams should seriously consider a submission.
It would also be appropriate for Wikimedia affiliates with any U.S.
presence, such as Wiki Project Med, to submit their own letters.
Submission is simple and instructions are here:
This is a unique opportunity to shift funding and scholarly communications
policy. We shouldn't waste it.
Jake Orlowitz
Founder of the Wikipedia Library
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 2:54 PM <wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
You can reach the person managing the list at
wikimedia-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Wikimedia-l digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy (Pete Forsyth)
2. Re: Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy (Shani Evenstein)
3. Re: Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy (Yaroslav Blanter)
4. Re: Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy (James Heilman)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 13:26:29 -0700
From: Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy
Message-ID:
<
CAGWts0H0n3m7kNTzQ6oAQu2Yx_94rTnyxz2_FpDvRTd50e-Jkw(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Jake,
How can we most effectively support your excellent effort with this?
-Pete
--
Pete Forsyth
User:Peteforsyth on Meta, English Wikisource, English Wikipedia, etc.
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:22 PM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
Very well-written and well-supported by statistics. Thanks for sharing.
Regards.
User:Titodutta
On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 1:41 AM Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> My Letter to the U.S. Office for Science and Technology Policy
regarding
a
> proposal for federally mandate open access to publicly-funded
research...
---
Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular websites in the world. Each
month
> 200,000 editors improve over 6 million articles. This vital public
> information is viewed on 1 billion unique devices as our pages are
loaded
> by people around the globe 7,000 times per
second.
>
> Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia", both in its open CC-BY-SA
licensing
> as well as the unpaid contributions of its
volunteer editors. Yet
> Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of editors struggle to access
scholarly
research.
And, if they are able to read and cite it, then hundreds of
millions of readers cannot verify or explore it for deeper research.
Citations are the bridge between Wikipedia articles and a broader
landscape
of reliable, secondary sources. Citations not
only allow readers to
verify
the reliability of the facts they find in
Wikipedia; through citations
readers can also deep-dive into any given topic by exploring the books,
scholarly publications, and news stories referenced in an article.
A recently released dataset of all citations with identifiers in
Wikipedia
found that less than half of the official
versions of scholarly
publications cited with an identifier in Wikipedia are freely available
on
> the web. This chasm of for editors and for readers is a tragedy of
public
education
and digital literacy.
Just look at the most recent global catastrophe with Coronavirus. By
April
> 2020 the main articles on COVID-19 had received 50 million views.
> Wikipedia's medical content--made up of more than 155,000 articles and
1
> billion bytes of text across more than 255
languages--has been ranked
as
one of
the top-3 most viewed sources for medical information on the
entire
> internet.
>
> References are essential to the public's trust in Wikipedia. Indeed,
> Wikipedia's medical content is supported by 757,855 references in
English
> and 1,596,528 in other languages, for a
total of 2,354,383 across all
> languages. In English 168,985 have a PMID while 261,850 do in other
> languages. This means at least 430,835 references are journal articles.
>
> What happens when those journal articles lie behind a paywall? The
public
> suffers from a dearth of good information to
make decisions about their
> lives as independent citizens and members of a global community.
>
> As founder of The Wikipedia Library, I arranged partnerships with
dozens
of
leading scholarly journals, to give Wikipedia
editors free access to
their
reliable content and so they would be able to do
effective and rigorous
research. This time-intensive process took 6 years to amass access to
only
1/5th of the most highly regarded academic
publications. Frankly,
Wikipedia
> editors--volunteers who selflessly give of their intelligence and
passion
to
educate--should not have to beg and borrow to access publicly-funded
research. Readers should not hit paywalls when they are seeking
citizen-supported knowledge.
I implore you to make the bold but entirely reasonable decision and
ensure
> that taxpayers have access to the vital scientific and scholarly
studies
> that they themselves fund. This is not only
sensible, it is essential
to
civic
health, societal progress, and human flourishing.
Sincerely,
Jake Orlowitz
Founder of The Wikipedia Library
---
"Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and Code
Resulting From Federally Funded Research"
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for…
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 23:33:01 +0300
From: Shani Evenstein <shani.even(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy
Message-ID:
<
CAEPMZQU4BXENOKT38hj619NQNCui6nd2PypGzphDSch0AbLhuA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Jake, well written and nicely put.
Is this online somewhere, where we can share it further?
Best,
Shani.
-----------------------------------------------
*Shani Evenstein Sigalov*
* Lecturer, Tel Aviv University.
* EdTech Innovation Strategist, NY/American Medical Program, Sackler School
of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.
* PhD Candidate, School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
* Azrieli Foundation Research Fellow.
* OER & Emerging Technologies Coordinator, UNESCO Chair
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495> on Technology,
Internationalization
and Education, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495>.
* Member of the Board of Trustees
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/shani-evenstein-sigalov/>,
Wikimedia
Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>.
* Chairperson, The Hebrew Literature Digitization Society
<http://www.israelgives.org/amuta/580428621>.
* Chief Editor, Project Ben-Yehuda <http://benyehuda.org>.
+972-525640648
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 11:27 PM Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Jake,
How can we most effectively support your excellent effort with this?
-Pete
--
Pete Forsyth
User:Peteforsyth on Meta, English Wikisource, English Wikipedia, etc.
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:22 PM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> Very well-written and well-supported by statistics. Thanks for sharing.
> Regards.
> User:Titodutta
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 1:41 AM Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> My Letter to the U.S. Office for Science and Technology Policy
regarding
a
> proposal for federally mandate open access to publicly-funded
research...
---
Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular websites in the world. Each
month
> 200,000 editors improve over 6 million articles. This vital public
> information is viewed on 1 billion unique devices as our pages are
loaded
> by people around the globe 7,000 times per
second.
>
> Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia", both in its open CC-BY-SA
licensing
> as well as the unpaid contributions of its
volunteer editors. Yet
> Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of editors struggle to access
scholarly
> > research. And, if they are able to read and cite it, then hundreds of
> > millions of readers cannot verify or explore it for deeper research.
> >
> > Citations are the bridge between Wikipedia articles and a broader
> landscape
> > of reliable, secondary sources. Citations not only allow readers to
> verify
> > the reliability of the facts they find in Wikipedia; through
citations
> > readers can also deep-dive into any
given topic by exploring the
books,
> > scholarly publications, and news
stories referenced in an article.
> >
> > A recently released dataset of all citations with identifiers in
> Wikipedia
> > found that less than half of the official versions of scholarly
> > publications cited with an identifier in Wikipedia are freely
available
on
> the web. This chasm of for editors and for readers is a tragedy of
public
> > education and digital literacy.
> >
> > Just look at the most recent global catastrophe with Coronavirus. By
> April
> > 2020 the main articles on COVID-19 had received 50 million views.
> > Wikipedia's medical content--made up of more than 155,000 articles
and
> 1
>
> billion bytes of text across more than
255 languages--has been ranked
> as
> > > one of the top-3 most viewed sources for medical information on the
> > entire
> > > internet.
> > >
> > > References are essential to the public's trust in Wikipedia. Indeed,
> > > Wikipedia's medical content is supported by 757,855 references in
> English
> > > and 1,596,528 in other languages, for a total of 2,354,383 across all
> > > languages. In English 168,985 have a PMID while 261,850 do in other
> > > languages. This means at least 430,835 references are journal
articles.
>
> What happens when those journal articles lie behind a paywall? The
public
> > suffers from a dearth of good information to make decisions about
their
>
lives as independent citizens and members of a global community.
>
> As founder of The Wikipedia Library, I arranged partnerships with
dozens
> of
> > leading scholarly journals, to give Wikipedia editors free access to
> their
> > reliable content and so they would be able to do effective and
rigorous
research. This time-intensive process took 6 years to
amass access to
only
1/5th of the most highly regarded academic
publications. Frankly,
Wikipedia
> editors--volunteers who selflessly give of their intelligence and
passion
> > to educate--should not have to beg and borrow to access
publicly-funded
> > > research. Readers should not hit paywalls when they are seeking
> > > citizen-supported knowledge.
> > >
> > > I implore you to make the bold but entirely reasonable decision and
> > ensure
> > > that taxpayers have access to the vital scientific and scholarly
> studies
>
> that they themselves fund. This is not
only sensible, it is essential
> to
> > > civic health, societal progress, and human flourishing.
> > >
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Jake Orlowitz
> > > Founder of The Wikipedia Library
> > >
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > > "Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and
Code
> > > Resulting From Federally Funded Research"
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for…
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
> > >
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 22:50:57 +0200
From: Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy
Message-ID:
<
CAM-kgDMd3XBcR00Dfjs0FzjyxjqzohicJ_FdwgO+Dbb_43_F_w(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
As an actively publishing researcher, I just know that mandating open
access publishing would mean that the author pays the (huge) publication
fee rather than the library pays the subscription. In an ideal world, the
universities would refund the fees, and will get subsidy from the
governments, In our real world, the researchers will have to pay everything
out of their own pocket, with some of them losing all possibilities to
publish, for the lack of funds. I tried to raise this before, and the
universal reply was that this is my problem, not the problem of the
society. I do not expect anything else this time.
Cheers
Yaroslav
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:34 PM Shani Evenstein <shani.even(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Jake, well written and nicely put.
Is this online somewhere, where we can share it further?
Best,
Shani.
-----------------------------------------------
*Shani Evenstein Sigalov*
* Lecturer, Tel Aviv University.
* EdTech Innovation Strategist, NY/American Medical Program, Sackler
School
of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.
* PhD Candidate, School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
* Azrieli Foundation Research Fellow.
* OER & Emerging Technologies Coordinator, UNESCO Chair
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495> on Technology,
Internationalization
and Education, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495>.
* Member of the Board of Trustees
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/shani-evenstein-sigalov/>,
Wikimedia
Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>.
* Chairperson, The Hebrew Literature Digitization Society
<http://www.israelgives.org/amuta/580428621>.
* Chief Editor, Project Ben-Yehuda <http://benyehuda.org>.
+972-525640648
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 11:27 PM Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Jake,
>
> How can we most effectively support your excellent effort with this?
>
> -Pete
> --
> Pete Forsyth
> User:Peteforsyth on Meta, English Wikisource, English Wikipedia, etc.
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:22 PM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> > Very well-written and well-supported by statistics. Thanks for
sharing.
>
Regards.
> User:Titodutta
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 1:41 AM Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> >
> > > My Letter to the U.S. Office for Science and Technology Policy
> regarding
> > a
> > > proposal for federally mandate open access to publicly-funded
> research...
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > > Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular websites in the world.
Each
> > month
> > > 200,000 editors improve over 6 million articles. This vital public
> > > information is viewed on 1 billion unique devices as our pages are
> loaded
> > > by people around the globe 7,000 times per second.
> > >
> > > Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia", both in its open CC-BY-SA
> licensing
> > > as well as the unpaid contributions of its volunteer editors. Yet
> > > Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of editors struggle to access
> scholarly
> > > research. And, if they are able to read and cite it, then hundreds
of
> > > millions of readers cannot verify
or explore it for deeper
research.
> > > >
> > > > Citations are the bridge between Wikipedia articles and a broader
> > > landscape
> > > > of reliable, secondary sources. Citations not only allow readers to
> > > verify
> > > > the reliability of the facts they find in Wikipedia; through
> citations
>
> > readers can also deep-dive into
any given topic by exploring the
> books,
> > > > scholarly publications, and news stories referenced in an article.
> > > >
> > > > A recently released dataset of all citations with identifiers in
> > > Wikipedia
> > > > found that less than half of the official versions of scholarly
> > > > publications cited with an identifier in Wikipedia are freely
> available
> > > on
> > > > the web. This chasm of for editors and for readers is a tragedy of
> > public
> > > > education and digital literacy.
> > > >
> > > > Just look at the most recent global catastrophe with Coronavirus.
By
>
April
> > 2020 the main articles on COVID-19 had received 50 million views.
> > Wikipedia's medical content--made up of more than 155,000 articles
and
> 1
> > > billion bytes of text across more than 255 languages--has been
ranked
> as
> > > one of the top-3 most viewed sources for medical information on the
> > entire
> > > internet.
> > >
> > > References are essential to the public's trust in Wikipedia.
Indeed,
> > > Wikipedia's medical content is
supported by 757,855 references in
> English
> > > and 1,596,528 in other languages, for a total of 2,354,383 across
all
> >
languages. In English 168,985 have a PMID while 261,850 do in other
> > languages. This means at least 430,835 references are journal
articles.
>
> What happens when those journal articles lie behind a paywall? The
public
> > suffers from a dearth of good information to make decisions about
their
> > > lives as independent citizens and members of a global community.
> > >
> > > As founder of The Wikipedia Library, I arranged partnerships with
> dozens
> > of
> > > leading scholarly journals, to give Wikipedia editors free access
to
>
their
> > reliable content and so they would be able to do effective and
rigorous
> > > research. This time-intensive process took 6 years to amass access
to
only
> 1/5th of the most highly regarded academic publications. Frankly,
Wikipedia
> editors--volunteers who selflessly give of their intelligence and
passion
> > to educate--should not have to beg and borrow to access
publicly-funded
> > > research. Readers should not hit paywalls when they are seeking
> > > citizen-supported knowledge.
> > >
> > > I implore you to make the bold but entirely reasonable decision and
> > ensure
> > > that taxpayers have access to the vital scientific and scholarly
> studies
> > > that they themselves fund. This is not only sensible, it is
essential
> to
> > > civic health, societal progress, and human flourishing.
> > >
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Jake Orlowitz
> > > Founder of The Wikipedia Library
> > >
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > > "Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and
Code
> Resulting From Federally Funded Research"
>
>
>
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for…
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
> > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
> > >
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:54:03 -0600
From: James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy
Message-ID:
<CAF1en7UeExtKLH9skVK+cRU_RPCBbuSF4yYZX98=
PYyDW_c-gQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
We within the Wikimedia movement have a open access journal without any
publication fees.
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group
There
are also other platinum open access publishers.
James
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 2:52 PM Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
As an actively publishing researcher, I just know
that mandating open
access publishing would mean that the author pays the (huge) publication
fee rather than the library pays the subscription. In an ideal world, the
universities would refund the fees, and will get subsidy from the
governments, In our real world, the researchers will have to pay
everything
out of their own pocket, with some of them losing
all possibilities to
publish, for the lack of funds. I tried to raise this before, and the
universal reply was that this is my problem, not the problem of the
society. I do not expect anything else this time.
Cheers
Yaroslav
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:34 PM Shani Evenstein <shani.even(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Jake, well written and nicely put.
Is this online somewhere, where we can share it further?
Best,
Shani.
-----------------------------------------------
*Shani Evenstein Sigalov*
* Lecturer, Tel Aviv University.
* EdTech Innovation Strategist, NY/American Medical Program, Sackler
School
of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.
* PhD Candidate, School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
* Azrieli Foundation Research Fellow.
* OER & Emerging Technologies Coordinator, UNESCO Chair
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495> on Technology,
Internationalization
and Education, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
<https://education.tau.ac.il/node/3495>.
* Member of the Board of Trustees
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/shani-evenstein-sigalov/>,
Wikimedia
Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>.
* Chairperson, The Hebrew Literature Digitization Society
<http://www.israelgives.org/amuta/580428621>.
* Chief Editor, Project Ben-Yehuda <http://benyehuda.org>.
+972-525640648
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 11:27 PM Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Jake,
>
> How can we most effectively support your excellent effort with this?
>
> -Pete
> --
> Pete Forsyth
> User:Peteforsyth on Meta, English Wikisource, English Wikipedia, etc.
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:22 PM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> > Very well-written and well-supported by statistics. Thanks for
sharing.
>
Regards.
> User:Titodutta
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 1:41 AM Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> >
> > > My Letter to the U.S. Office for Science and Technology Policy
> regarding
> > a
> > > proposal for federally mandate open access to publicly-funded
> research...
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > > Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular websites in the world.
Each
> > > month
> > > > 200,000 editors improve over 6 million articles. This vital
public
> > > > information is viewed on 1
billion unique devices as our pages
are
> > loaded
> > > > by people around the globe 7,000 times per second.
> > > >
> > > > Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia", both in its open
CC-BY-SA
> > licensing
> > > > as well as the unpaid contributions of its volunteer editors. Yet
> > > > Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of editors struggle to access
> > scholarly
> > > > research. And, if they are able to read and cite it, then
hundreds
> of
>
> > > millions of readers cannot
verify or explore it for deeper
> research.
> > > > >
> > > > > Citations are the bridge between Wikipedia articles and a
broader
> > > > landscape
> > > > > of reliable, secondary sources. Citations not only allow
readers
to
> > > > verify
> > > > > the reliability of the facts they find in Wikipedia; through
> > citations
> >
> > readers can also deep-dive
into any given topic by exploring the
> > books,
> > > > > scholarly publications, and news stories referenced in an
article.
> > > >
> > > > A recently released dataset of all citations with identifiers in
> > > Wikipedia
> > > > found that less than half of the official versions of scholarly
> > > > publications cited with an identifier in Wikipedia are freely
> available
> > > on
> > > > the web. This chasm of for editors and for readers is a tragedy
of
>
public
> > > education and digital literacy.
> > >
> > > Just look at the most recent global catastrophe with Coronavirus.
By
> > > April
> > > > 2020 the main articles on COVID-19 had received 50 million views.
> > > > Wikipedia's medical content--made up of more than 155,000
articles
and
> 1
> > > billion bytes of text across more than 255 languages--has been
ranked
> > as
> > > > one of the top-3 most viewed sources for medical information on
the
> >
entire
> > > internet.
> > >
> > > References are essential to the public's trust in Wikipedia.
Indeed,
> > > Wikipedia's medical content is
supported by 757,855 references in
> English
> > > and 1,596,528 in other languages, for a total of 2,354,383 across
all
> > > > languages. In English 168,985 have a PMID while 261,850 do in
other
> > > > languages. This means at
least 430,835 references are journal
> articles.
> > > >
> > > > What happens when those journal articles lie behind a paywall?
The
public
> > suffers from a dearth of good information to make decisions about
their
> > > lives as independent citizens and members of a global community.
> > >
> > > As founder of The Wikipedia Library, I arranged partnerships with
> dozens
> > of
> > > leading scholarly journals, to give Wikipedia editors free access
to
> > > their
> > > > reliable content and so they would be able to do effective and
> rigorous
> > > > research. This time-intensive process took 6 years to amass
access
to
> > > only
> > > > 1/5th of the most highly regarded academic publications. Frankly,
> > > Wikipedia
> > > > editors--volunteers who selflessly give of their intelligence and
> > passion
> > > > to educate--should not have to beg and borrow to access
> publicly-funded
> > > > research. Readers should not hit paywalls when they are seeking
> > > > citizen-supported knowledge.
> > > >
> > > > I implore you to make the bold but entirely reasonable decision
and
> >
ensure
> > > that taxpayers have access to the vital scientific and scholarly
> studies
> > > that they themselves fund. This is not only sensible, it is
essential
> to
> > > civic health, societal progress, and human flourishing.
> > >
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Jake Orlowitz
> > > Founder of The Wikipedia Library
> > >
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > > "Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and
Code
> >
Resulting From Federally Funded Research"
> >
> >
> >
>
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for…
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > > > >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > > > >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > > > > Unsubscribe:
> >
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
> ?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
> > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
> > >
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
------------------------------
End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 193, Issue 30
********************************************