The human right to science and the moral right to open scientific publications

Abstract

While much of the debate on the relationship between a human right to science and copyright focuses on the exceptions and limitations to exclusive rights and on users’ rights, this paper, on the wake of foregoing studies, argues that it is also necessary to look at other legal mechanisms. In this perspective, it is necessary to reflect on the so called “secondary publication right”. This right is an essential tool to defend academic autonomy and freedom, which are increasingly at risk. It is not an exception or a user’s right but rather a moral and economic author’s right to open scientific texts, which is philosophically rooted on the Kantian vision of copyright (protecting the integrity of the discourse between author and public), the public use of reason and the Mertonian norms of science. The right to open scientific texts is a fundamental aspect of the human right to (open) science.