Four scientists who have authored the Panton Principles have been named SPARC innovators. These include Peter Murray-Rust, chemist at the University of Cambridge; Cameron Neylon, biochemist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, England; Rufus Pollock, co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation and Mead Fellow in Economics, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge; and John Wilbanks, vice president for Science, Creative Commons, San Francisco.
The Panton Principles put forth a set of recommendations for scientists to more easily share their data. The scientists believe that science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavors, it is crucial that science data be made open.
The authors advocate making data freely available on the Internet for anyone to download, copy, analyse, reprocess, pass to software or use for any purpose without financial, legal or technical barriers. Through the Principles, the group aimed to develop clear language that explicitly defines how a scientist's rights to his or her own data could be structured so others can freely reuse or build on it. The goal was to craft language simple enough that a scientist could easily follow it, and then focus on doing science rather than law.
The Panton Principles were publicly launched in February of 2010, with a website at www.pantonprinciples.org to spread the word and an invitation to endorse. About 100 individuals and organisations have endorsed the Principles so far.
The SPARC Innovator programme seeks to recognise advances in scholarly communication propelled by an individual, institution, or group. Typically, these advances exemplify SPARC principles by challenging the status quo in scholarly communication for the benefit of researchers, libraries, universities and the public. SPARC Innovators are featured on the SPARC website semi-annually and have included the Optical Society of America, R. Preston McAfee; Harvard University FAS; student leaders; and others. SPARC Innovators are selected by the SPARC staff in consultation with the SPARC Steering Committee.
Individuals can nominate their colleagues as potential SPARC Innovators at http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator.
