On Saturday 8th November BioMed Central will attend a workshop on finding and re-using open scientific resources: https://okfn.org/wiki/OpenScience/Workshop, hosted by the Open Knowledge Foundation: www.okfn.org.

The aim of the Open Knowledge Foundation is to promote (and protect) open knowledge and this workshop will focus on finding and re-using open scientific resources, including open and public domain data, open access journal articles, and open educational materials. In addition to focused discussions about legal and technological aspects of re-use, open scientific resources will be documented and tagged on CKAN, a registry of knowledge resources.

At BioMed Central we view open access as essential in order to ensure the rapid and efficient communication of research findings, and BMC Research Notes in particular is heavily involved in promoting data sharing. For submissions to BMC Research Notes all relevant data should be made publicly available either in public repositories or in additional files to be published with the article and we are working with researchers to define appropriate recommendations for data file standards and data reporting standards.

This workshop promises to be an interesting event, with participants from various sectors voicing their opinions and sharing their knowledge and experience of open scientific resources. If you are interested in attending this event please contact the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Rhian Cunliffe,

In-house Editor,

BMC Research Notes

Update 11.11.08

The workshop
attracted participants from all areas of science who had an interest in open
access and data sharing. It featured some very interesting and varied
discussions about openness and data sharing, including the definition of
openness, how different communities may have different views on open data
sharing and its benefits, and how funders are beginning to implement open data
policies.

We discussed specific
examples of open data resources, the simple recipe to make data open, the
benefits of open access and how to promote them within different scientific
communities, and curatorship and maintenance of open data sources.

The full attendance,
agenda and notes from the workshop can be found here: https://okfn.org/wiki/OpenScience/Workshop/Notes.