[GA - PASSED] Access to Scientific Knowledge

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The General Assembly,

Recognizing the ever-present imbalance in the growth of states, especially when it comes to scientific development; and

Believing the solution to that imbalance presents itself in the public dissemination of scientific knowledge throughout all member states;

Hereby:

1. Defines “sciences” for the purpose of this resolution as the academic study of natural phenomena and processes, social functions and relationships, and thought about those categories.
   
   
2. Establishes the Council for Scientific Dissemination (CSD).
   
   
3. Mandates that member states provide the CSD with data and research in the sciences, published in peer-reviewed journals and meeting appropriate standards for replicability - barring that which is classified for the purposes of national security, defense, or represents a proprietary trade secret.
   
   
4. Requires that member states additionally provide the CSD with any government-funded research and data in the sciences - barring that which is classified for the purposes of national security, defense, or represents a proprietary trade secret.
   
   
5. Obligates all member states to provide the CSD with sufficient reasoning for the classification and thus withholding of materials as per Articles 3 and 4. The CSD shall determine the sufficiency of any arguments provided by member states in accordance with the following criteria:
   1. Whether the dissemination of materials would result in a threat to national security, and/or
   2. Whether the dissemination of materials would result in severe, potentially irrecoverable damage to a member state’s economy.
6. States that the CSD shall:
   1. Coordinate with member states to ensure that all research and data received meets the standards of peer review and replicability.
   2. Coordinate with other offices and bureaus established by this august World Assembly to provide them with research and data relevant to their mandates.
   3. Establish a easily searchable database of the received data and research in the sciences that is available to the general public.

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Note: Only votes from TNP WA nations and NPA personnel will be counted. If you do not meet these requirements, please add (non-WA) or something of that effect to your vote.

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Voting Instructions:

• Vote For if you want the Delegate to vote For the resolution.
• Vote Against if you want the Delegate to vote Against the resolution.
• Vote Abstain if you want the Delegate to abstain from voting on this resolution.
• Vote Present if you are personally abstaining from this vote.

Detailed opinions with your vote are appreciated and encouraged!

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"Access to Scientific Knowledge" has passed 12,969 (79.7%) to 3,307 (20.3%).

IFV - For - Please upvote the dispatch!

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Overview
This resolution puts a system in place for the collection and dissemination of scientific research conducted by or published in World Assembly nations. All member states would be required to share all such research (that meets an appropriate standard and is not secret for reasons of national security or trade) with a newly created committee. This committee is in turn charged with verifying the quality of the research, sharing it with other World Assembly committees as relevant, and making it publicly available in a centralised database.

Ministry Analysis:
This is a useful concept - increasing the access of World Assembly committees to member states' scientific research would greatly facilitate their work and ease pressure on the incredibly strained World Assembly General Fund. The requirement for the committee to ensure that the research they receive meets certain standards also promotes scientific transparency in member states, and the public nature of the database impedes corruption and misinformation on the part of governments. The execution of these goals is excellent, the only possible point of contention being what exactly is or is not considered a "science" under the resolution's definition, but this does not detract from the effectiveness of the resolution in general.

For this reason, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote For the General Assembly Resolution at vote, "Access To Scientific Knowledge".

This IFV Recommendation was written in collaboration with our World Assembly Legislative League partners.

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Present

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This somehow got to quorum in 7 hours, so....this proposal has received the requisite approvals to enter the formal queue. Barring it being withdrawn or marked illegal, it will proceed to a vote at Major Update on Wednesday, April 6.

For

I don’t see any reason to vote against this one

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For

For. As an aside, this almost solves one of my pet peeves (and a longstanding complaint in academic research) that most journals are behind (expensive) paywalls, notwithstanding servers like JSTOR etc. The current (in real life) solution of preprint servers plus Microsoft Bing / Google is less than ideal.

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For

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For (non-wa)

For

For. (Non-WA)

For.

"Access to Scientific Knowledge" has passed 12,969 (79.7%) to 3,307 (20.3%). This is author Hulldom's 10th General Assembly Resolution authored and co-authors @Greater Cesnica 's 10th and Thousand Branches' 2nd.