23 Jul 2014
BioMed Central’s Open Access Advocacy Award recognizes European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda BioMed Central, one of the world’s leading open access publishers, has presented its Open Access Advocacy Award for 2014 to Ms Neelie Kroes, the European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda.
Ms Kroes has been the Dutch member of the European Commission for almost ten years and has been responsible for the Digital Agenda for the past four and a half years. During this period, she has brought the open access agenda to the forefront of the spirited discussion on the future of science and research in Europe. Openness has been one of the main themes of this term, during which the Commission has proposed, and the European Parliament and Council of Ministers have agreed, that all articles produced with funding from FP7 and Horizon 2020 must be published using open access.
Wide-ranging discussions on how to make data open as well have also begun. Ms Kroes has spoken, tweeted and blogged widely on the subject, bringing knowledge about open access to many more people. The award recognises the key role that Ms Kroes had played, especially with respect to drawing media attention to open access.
BioMed Central’s Annual Research Awards recognize excellence in scientific research made freely available to any interested reader through open access publishing within our portfolio of biology and medical journals. From time to time, the BioMed Central Open Access Advocacy Award acknowledges not only outstanding individual or institutional efforts made to support open access to research, but also researchers demonstrating leadership in data sharing.
During the presentation of the Award, Ms Kroes said: "Open Access is an essential building block for what we increasingly see in all academic disciplines: open, digital science and research. That is why I have always strongly supported it. I accept this award because it also recognises all the hard work done by my colleagues in the Commission as well as science policy makers in the Member States and the practitioners we support on the ground. Without them, open science would not be where it is today."
"The BioMed Central Open Access Advocacy Award recognises individuals who have made a major contribution to the understanding and adoption of open access. Ms Kroes, in her passionate advocacy of open access throughout her term as European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has done a huge amount to move open science from a dream to a reality in Europe in a very short space of time,” said Deborah Kahn, Executive Vice President Publishing BioMed Central.
BioMed Central was the first open access publisher and has 265 journals publishing research across biology and medicine. In recent years the publisher has begun to experiment with more open peer review models and technologies to help academics manage, connect and access ever growing datasets
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BioMed Central
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BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.
BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector www.biomedcentral.com