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The Open Access Directory (OAD) just opened a list of Wikis about OA for community editing. Remember that OAD is itself a wiki. You can help the cause by adding or revising entries to the OAD lists. OA experiences in Latin America
Edgardo Civallero, Open Access: experiencias latinoamericanas, presented at II Congreso Internacional de Bibliotecolog�a e Informaci�n (Lima, Per�, November 13-15, 2006); deposited May 24, 2008. (Thanks to Carolina De Volder.)
Update. An English translation is now available. (Thanks to Fernando Bordignon.) From the introduction: The Open Access philosophy has became an invaluable tool for guaranteeing free access to information in a Knowledge Society deeply marked by digital divides, copyright barriers and new forms of information illiteracy. Information has the power to improve development, to provide solutions to urgent problems, to recover identities from oblivion, to assert rights and values, and to help personal and professional growth. In short, information is a key element in the achievement of the social welfare that any people deserve. On the one hand, when information is free accessed, using new digital technologies and copyright in a way that is correct and appropriate, Open Access movement guarantees equality of opportunities to access strategic knowledge, which is within everybody�s rights. On the other, Open Access also guarantees the freedom of expression and fosters the cooperative and active creation of healthy democratic societies. Only within an informed context can new proposals be submitted and appropriate decisions made towards the development of a country, the education of a community and the personal and professional growth of the persons that make it up, with no distinctions, barriers or differences at all. The following paragraphs are intended as a general description of the fundamental concepts around this way of working and as an introduction to the main initiatives and best practices on Open Access developed in Latin America. New software to expose OAI-PMH metadata
OAI2LOD Server v. 0.2 was released on April 18, 2008. (Thanks to Charles Bailey.) From the software's description:
The OAI2LOD Server exposes any OAI-PMH compliant metadata repository according to the Linked Data guidelines. This makes things and media objects accessible via HTTP URIs and query able via the SPARQL protocol. Parts of the OAI2LOD architecture, especially the front-end, are based on the D2R Server implementation. How to make gov. data transparent
Ed Felten, Government Data and the Invisible Hand, Freedom to Tinker, June 2, 2008.
Update. See also this related post, New bill advances open data, but could be better for reuse.
Paula J. Hane, Leveraging Britannica�s Content With WebShare, Information Today, June 2, 2008.
Comment. See our earlier post on the topic. New OA library science journal
Cr�tica Bibliotecol�gica: Revista de las Ciencias de la Informaci�n Documental (provided English title: Library and Information Science Critique: Journal of the Sciences of Information Recorded in Documents) is a new OA journal announced June 3. See the listserv posting or the announcement on E-LIS (both in Spanish).
Mary Anne Kennan and Karlheinz Kautz, Scholarly publishing and open access: searching for understanding of an emerging is phenomenon, in Proceedings 15th European Conference on Information Systems, St.Gallen, Switzerland, 2007. Self-archived June 5, 2008.
The next issue of Policy Futures in Education is devoted to Commercialisation, Internationalisation and the Internet and will contain five articles by Chris Armbruster, two of which have a strong OA connection. Here are links to OA editions already self-archived:
Update (10/16/08). The issue is now online. Adam Hodgkin has done a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the carbon footprint of digital literature. The University of Pretoria has launched an institutional repository, UPSpace. (Thanks to ROARMAP.) The Open Knowledge Foundation is looking for help in producing a series of public domain calculators:
Notes on the CHLA/ABSC conference Greg Rowell has blogged some notes (at Dean Giustini's blog) on the 2008 CHLA/ABSC conference (Halifax, May 26-30, 2008). Excerpt:
Sharing site annotations with fellow researchers Catherine Rampell, iBreadCrumbs: a Social Network for Research Sharing, Wired Campus, June 4, 2008. Excerpt:
More on the Elsevier HINARI study Barbara Kirsop, Free access leads to increased research, EPT, June 5, 2008. Excerpt:
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Hypertextual Library Manifesto Ricardo Riti, Hypertextual Library Manifesto Version 1.0, Library Philosophy and Practice 2008. Translated from the Italian by Juliana Mazzocchi. Excerpt:
Kristin Yiotis, Electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) repositories: What are they? Where do they come from? How do they work? OCLC Systems & Services, 24, 2 (2008) pp. 101-115. Only this abstract is free online, at least so far:
Library digitization project in New South Wales
David King, Library to go digital with $10m handout, The Australian, June 4, 2008. (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)
The State Library of [New South Wales] has received $10 million to digitise its catalogue of some of its oldest and most valuable works.Comment. It's not clear to me exactly what is being digitized (manuscripts or catalog cards?), and whether the materials will be OA or only available to New South Wales libraries ("... would give libraries across the state online access to [the material]"). Can any readers point me to an answer? Update. This press release from NSW's Arts Minister makes clear that the funding is to build a digital catalog, not to digitize manuscripts. (Thanks to Maryanne Kennan.) For information on the State Library of New South Wales's (separate) collection digitization projects, see this page.
Chris Rusbridge, The negative cost repository, and other archive services, Digital Curation Blog, June 4, 2008.
... [T]here is quite a range of services that could be offered by some combination of Library and IT services: ... Latest additions to DOAJ: 35 new entries (part 2)
The following journals were added to the Directory of Open Access Journals May 27-June 2, most recent first:
Latest additions to DOAJ: 35 new entries (part 1)
The following journals were added to the Directory of Open Access Journals May 19-26, most recent first:
New OA journal in humanities and social science
Trivium is a new OA journal publishing articles on humanities and social sciences in French and German, published by the Fondation Maison des sciences de l�homme. The inaugural issue is now online. (Thanks to Klaus Graf.)
Donna Wentworth, Voices from the future of science: Lorrie LeJeune from OpenWetWare, Science Commons blog, June 3, 2008.
Two contributions to the Publius Project on OA The Publius Project of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society just published two contributions on OA:
OA mandate a highlight of Harvard's year The OA mandate at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences made the Harvard Gazette's Highlights of the year that was. The entry:
PS: It was an exciting year at Harvard. If the OA mandate hadn't made the list of highlights, the year would have had to be much more exciting. More on the Microsoft decision to pull the plug on book-scanning Barbara Quint has written two good pieces on Microsoft's decision to wind down its book-scanning and academic search projects. Each was published in Information Today on June 5, 2008.
From the first:
From the second:
OA theses and dissertations at U of British Columbia Meg Walker, Bringing Theses to the Web, University of British Columbia Public Affairs, June 5, 2008. Excerpt:
OA mandates as an opportunity for libraries Geneva Henry, Open Access Mandates: Opportunities for DLF Institutions, a presentation at the Digital Library Federation (DLF) Spring Forum 2008 (Minneapolis, April 28-30, 2008). Only the abstract is online, at least so far.
CARL calls for Canadian OA mandate The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has released its April 2008 submission on Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada’s Advantage to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. (Thanks to the INIST Libre Accès blog.) Excerpt:
PS: In two past posts (one, two) I've blogged six other pro-OA submissions to the same committee. Update on the OA mandate at Italy's ISS Elisabetta Poltronieri and Paola De Castro, Taking the first steps towards institutional open access, Research Information, June/July 2008. Excerpt:
PS: For background, see our post on the ISS OA mandate. Interview with Steven Inchcoombe Siân Harris, Publishing should help research, Research Information, June/July 2008. An interview with Steven Inchcoombe, the Managing Director of the Nature Publishing Group. Excerpt:
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Two Australian government initiatives The Australian government is seeking public comments on the new National Innovation System. The Open Access Law Project at Queensland U of Technology has already released its submission (April 30, 2008), calling for a strong national commitment to OA. In a related development, the Australian government has released a Consultation Paper (June 2008) on the country's new research assessment exercise, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). Public comments are due by June 30, 2008. (Thanks to Arthur Sale.) The ERA replaces the Research Quality Framework (RQF). While the RQF had implications for OA, largely negative, I haven't yet seen any comments on the OA implications of the ERA.
OA mandate at the U of Helsinki The University of Helsinki has adopted an OA mandate. From the English version of the policy statement:
There are a few extra details in today's announcement:
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Update. Also see the university's English-language announcement, June 11, 2008. Another prominent misstatement about OA and peer review Stevan Harnad, Hidden Cost of Failing to Access Information, Open Access Archivangelism, June 5, 2008. Excerpt: "Disseminating research via the web is appealing, but it lacks journals' peer-review quality filter," says Philip Altbach in: Hidden cost of open access Times Higher Education Supplement 5 June 2008 Comments
Controlled vocabulary for publisher self-archiving policies Celia Jenkins, Charles Oppenheim, Steve Probets, and Bill Hubbard, RoMEO studies 7: creation of a controlled vocabulary to analyse copyright transfer agreements, Journal of Information Science, June 1, 2008. Only this abstract is free online, at least so far.
Comment. This is a good idea. As I argued in a 2004 article:
Cécile Coursol interviewed Jean Kempf yesterday in EducPros.fr. (Thanks to the INIST Libre Accès blog.) He talks about OA publishing at the University of Lyon, where he is the director of the university press, and at the OAPEN consortium, of which Lyon is a member. Read it in the original French or in Google's English. More on the SPARC Europe Seal program Tracey Caldwell, SPARC gives Seal of approval to DOAJ content reuse terms, Information World Review, June 4, 2008. Excerpt:
PS: For background, see my post and supportive comments on the launch of the program in April 2008. Oxford Open articles automatically deposited in PMC From today's announcement from Oxford University Press:
Comment. This is a good policy, and I'm glad to see that it applies to all OA articles in Oxford Open journals, not just those by NIH-funded authors. All journals publishing OA articles should deposit copies of those articles in an OA repository. Even when this doesn't lift an obligation from the author's shoulders, it increases the odds that the article will remain available, and remain OA, if the publisher should ever change its access policy or go out of business. A society publisher explores its OA options Peter A. Jumars, Charting a Course through the Riptides, Cross Currents, and Undertows of Scientific Journal Publishing, Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin, March 2008. Accessible only to subscribers, at least so far. (My link points to the login page for the issue, not to the article.) Excerpt:
PS: For background, see the ASLO Statement on Open Access (undated) and Free-Access Publication option (a hybrid-journal program). Elsevier's first quarter lobbying budget Reed Elsevier 1Q lobbying reached $790,000, Associated Press, June 4, 2008. Excerpt:
Comment. All we have are good arguments. Progress toward OA in the social sciences and humanities Tracey Caldwell, OA in the humanities badlands, Information World Review, June 4, 2008. Excerpt:
PS: For background, see my 2004 article, Promoting Open Access in the Humanities.
Juan Freire, Universities and Web 2.0: Institutional challenges, elearningpapers, April 30, 2008. Excerpt:
... web 2.0 is challenging copyright (the strict protection of intellectua property) because the open source paradigm (allowing for open access and creative remix of contents) has demonstrated important competitive advantages, allowing for more creativity and productivity ... This new open knowledge paradigm is grounded in the success of free software and the old tradition of scientific communities ... Successful uses of web 2.0 are yet an experimental field where trial-and-error is the basic approach. A considerable base of experience is being developed (and shared) by lead users and organizations that could be mined by other interested parties to gain efficiency in their processes of adoption. Basically, we could find two sources of experience: ... Other organizations involved in the adoption of web 2.0 tools and open paradigms, especially other universities and research institutions and enterprises. Universities provide some excellent experiences; to cite only a few: MIT Open Course Ware, Stanford on iTunes U ... or the recent proposal of a Harvard Open Access Policy. ... Web 2.0 is especially useful and creative when knowledge is digitized, modular and allowed to be used and distributed in a flexible way. New models of licences, as Creative Commons or ColorIuris, introduce this needed flexibility respect to the absolute restriction of uses and distribution that characterized copyright. ... No need to remove your working paper from RePEc post-publication
Christian Zimmermann, My paper got published, what do I do?, The RePEc blog, May 20, 2008.
David Prossser, Introduction to Open Access: What and Why?, a presentation at Open Access: New Models for Scholarly Communication (Tbilisi, Georgia, May 14-15, 2008).
Update. See also the other presentations from the same conference. Global movements for OA to legal information
John Wonderlich, Legal Information as a Global Movement, The Open House Project, May 27, 2008. A blog post and three videos. (Thanks to Free Government Information.)
... All around the world, without centralized planning, institutes have sprung up in response to a pressing need: non-lawyers have a real use for legal information, but can�t get it. In countries across several continents, new initiatives online are successfully giving the general public information that they wouldn�t have been able to search before, information that used to be controlled exclusively by the legal information publishing businesses. ... More on OA to PSI, and using it
A Failure of Access, a Shortcoming of Technology, OMB Watch, May 28, 2008.
Consortial digital press dedicated to OA Computers and Composition Digital Press is a new "open access, peer-reviewed, online press" jointly supported by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Miami University, and Ohio State University and affiliated with the Institute for the Future of the Book. (Thanks to Screen Space.) From the about page:
From the CFP:
While the history of the CCDP says the press was founded in 2007, the home page of Heide McKee, a member of editorial board, says it didn't officially open until March 2008.
Robert Ambrogi, An Accelerating Trend, Oregon State Bar Bulletin, May 2008. (Thanks to Legal Research Plus.)
Feb. 11 was a day that may forever change the course of online legal research. On that day, the nonprofit organization Public.Resource.Org published to the Internet 1.8 million pages of federal case law, free of copyright or other restrictions. The release included all Supreme Court cases and all U.S. circuit decisions since 1950.
Jeana H. Frost and Michael P. Massagli, Social Uses of Personal Health Information Within PatientsLikeMe, an Online Patient Community: What Can Happen When Patients Have Access to One Another�s Data, Journal of Medical Internet Research, May 27, 2008. (Thanks to McBlawg.) Abstract:
Background: This project investigates the ways in which patients respond to the shared use of what is often considered private information: personal health data. There is a growing demand for patient access to personal health records. The predominant model for this record is a repository of all clinically relevant health information kept securely and viewed privately by patients and their health care providers. While this type of record does seem to have beneficial effects for the patient�physician relationship, the complexity and novelty of these data coupled with the lack of research in this area means the utility of personal health information for the primary stakeholders�the patients�is not well documented or understood.See also our earlier post on PatientsLikeMe. Open Everything launches today I don't normally blog upcoming events. (Instead, I list them in the Open Access Directory and encourage others to do the same). But Open Everything is different. It's a series of at least six events, including a three day retreat in British Columbia and half day events in cities around the world. It will cover many kindred movements, including OA to research, and put each in a wider context. From a blog post by Mark Surman, one of the organizers:
In what sense is WikiProfessional 'free'?
Jan Velterop, The meanings of 'free', The Parachute, May 30, 2008.
I've received questions about Knewco's WikiProfessional. How free it is; and if it is free as in 'free beer' or free as in 'free speech'.Comment. For the full explanation, see the post. For background on the project, see our earlier post. Upcoming eIFL IR visit to Ukraine
eIFL is organizing a study visit of IR managers to Ukraine on June 18-21, 2008. From the posting:
... There are 7 pilot open access institutional repositories in Ukraine ... We invite open repositories managers from nearby countries to join us in this knowledge-sharing event. ... Kayvan Kousha and Mike Thelwall, Sources of Google Scholar citations outside the Science Citation Index: A comparison between four science disciplines, Scientometrics, in the issue dated February 2008 but published online in November 2007. (Thanks to Mike Ciavarella.) Only this abstract is free online, at least so far:
Looking for sustainable business models for online academic resources Kevin Guthrie, Rebecca Griffiths, and Nancy Maron, Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources, a report from the Strategic Content Alliance and Ithaka, May 2008. Excerpt: For each of many business models, the report looks at the kinds of resources best suited to the model, its advantages, disadvantages, costs, some open questions about it, and suggestions for further research. It's all worth reading. Here I excerpt just the disadvantages from just some of the models:
Stephen Strauss, How to make a science out of drug discovery, CBC News, May 30, 2008.
Apparently one of the greatest mysteries in science is how to make a science out of drug discovery. ... What to do to make the system more rational? Well, [Aled Edwards, head of collaboration between the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, and Sweden's Karolinska Institute called the Structural Genomics Consortium] and his Swedish and English collaborators are studying the shapes of the body's proteins and then making their results freely available on the internet. It turns out the shape of proteins is vital knowledge when trying to develop a drug to block the actions of some disease causing body molecule. And their view is that this is knowledge that all companies need to have for free as a precursor to drug development. Their analysis suggests they can reduce early drug discovery time by as much as 18 months and do the work at anywhere from a third to an eighth of the price of traditional academic and industrial research. ... Video interview on open source ecology
James Burke, in a May 29 posting to the P2P Foundation blog, links to a video interview by Vinay Gupta on open source ecology, and its implementation lab, Factor e Farm.
Libraries consider role in digitization
Andy Guess, Post-Microsoft, Libraries Mull Digitization, Inside Higher Ed, May 30, 2008.
Microsoft�s announcement last Friday that it would discontinue its book- and journal-scanning initiatives left its partners at university research libraries pondering the future of efforts to digitize materials in their archives. Analysts said the software giant was refocusing on its strengths, in effect conceding the digitization arena to Google, the company that in 2004 first started working with universities on book scanning � to some fanfare as well as controversy. Libraries increasingly see digitization as a preservation strategy. While Microsoft�s departure probably won�t cause significant upheaval, it will reinforce for universities the necessity of ensuring that they retain the rights to their scanned materials � or that their digitization projects will be around next semester, let alone forever. One way to do that is to continue pursuing internal, proprietary scanning projects which, for many libraries, existed for years before Google and Microsoft made it possible to vastly increase their scope and scale. Another is to work with nonprofit initiatives. But if there�s one thing libraries agree on, it�s that the competition between the two companies was healthy. ... One alternative, besides Google, is the realm of private, open-source scanning efforts. The major player in this arena so far is the Internet Archive, which for now is looking for stopgap funding. But Kahle, in a blog post, sounded optimistic: �Onward to a completely public library system!� ... �So now it�s time for the public sphere to build digital services,� he said in the interview. �And fortunately, a lot of the R&D is already done. But that does mean that it has to be funded and brought forward by we libraries. But that�s what we libraries are supposed to do.� Kahle added that, as �the Web has always worked,� he foresaw a return to �many different organizations� competing, or working in concert, to continue the progress made so far in digitizing library reserves. ... Microsoft's exit no deterrent to Google Book Search
Clint Boulton, Google Still Gung-ho on Book Search, eWeek, May 29, 2008.
With Microsoft announcing plans to jump ship on its Live Search Books and Live Search Academic last week, industry watchers are turning to Google to see what the company's next move is. ... But is Google still committed to its Book Search project? The company has been quiet about it of late. Absolutely, a spokesperson assured eWEEK. ... The America COMPETES Act and OA
Heather Morrison, America Competes Act and Open Access, The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, May 29, 2008.
The The America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act (COMPETES) has been cited in a couple of the responses to the extended consultation period made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health on the new requirement aspect of the Public Access Policy. New OA journal of human genomics
Human Genomics and Proteomics is a new peer-reviewed OA journal on human genomics and proteomics, systems biology, and personalized medicine. The journal is published as a joint venture by Sage Publishing and Hindawi Publishing. Article processing charges are �700 per accepted article. Authors retain copyright of their articles, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Comment. This is the first title in a series of OA journals co-published by Sage and Hindawi; see our November 2007 post for background. Update (from PS). Also see Bob Grant's article in The Scientist for June 2, 2008. Excerpt:
Update (from PS). Also see Si�n Harris's article about the journal, and its commitment to OA and open data, in Research Information for August/September 2008. New issue of Serials Review on OA Revisited
The March issue of Serials Review (just out, apparently) is devoted to Open Access Revisited. The "revisited" refers to a theme issue of the journal from four years ago. The contents:
... Elsevier has agreed to make this focus issue available in its published version for the next nine to twelve months as the sample issue of Serials Review to support the intent of the authors and the concept of Open Access. ...Update. See also the self-archived version of the Gu�don article.
The Open Archives Initiative has released the beta version of the ORE specifications and user guides. From yesterday's announcement:
Law and institutional advocacy in building support for OA Nicholas Bramble, Open Access: Problems of Collective Action and Promises of Civic Engagement, apparently a preprint. Self-archived May 13, 2008. (Thanks to Legal Research Plus.) Bramble is a third year law student at Harvard Law School. Abstract:
Dutch repository content added to national science portal NARCIS ("the gateway to Dutch scientific information") has now integrated DAREnet ("the network of [Dutch] Digital Academic REpositories"). From yesterday's announcement:
Open knowledge definition in Italian The Open Knowledge Definition has been translated into Italian. John Dvorak on the Microsoft book-scanning decision John Dvorak, Microsoft Drops the Ball on Book Search, PC Magazine, June 3, 2008. Excerpt:
TA journal supports immediate OA for publicly-funded research Guy G. Simoneau and Edith Holmes, JOSPT Supports Immediate Access to Publicly Funded Research, Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, June 2008. An editorial. Only the first paragraph of the editorial is free online, at least so far. Excerpt:
Comments
Update. I've recently gained access to the text. Excerpt:
PS: The ERC and MRC policies are strong mandates, but the CIHR and ARC policies, in different ways, allow resisting publishers to block OA without refusing to publish the authors subject to their terms. JOSPT is providing OA voluntarily when it could effectively resist. Kudos to the journal and its publishers, the Orthopaedic Section and the Sports Physical Therapy Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. Here are two more OA-related articles from the special March issue of Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics devoted to The use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance:
Milestone for LibriVox OA audiobooks Mike Linksvayer, LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books, CC blog, June 2, 2008. Excerpt:
More on implementing the NIH policy Joan Giesecke, NIH Public Access Policy: Campus Implementation Strategies, a slide presentation at the 152nd ARL Membership Meeting (Coral Gables, Florida, May 21–23, 2008). (Thanks to Charles Bailey.)
More on adding OA journal records to the library catalogue The Glasgow School of Art Library is adding OA journal records to its catalogue. From its blog today:
Comment. Libraries have been doing this since DOAJ started providing the records, But I haven't heard much about it since the ERIL discussion in 2003. Has it declined, or just become so routine that it's rarely mentioned? Picking a journal with impact in mind Athanassios C. Tsikliras, Chasing after the high impact, Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, March 6, 2008.
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Update (6/3/08). There were two more OA-related articles in the issue and I just blogged them. I just mailed the June issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter. This issue takes a close look at how open access facilitates the process of scientific self-correction and improves the reliability of inquiry, drawing on arguments made by John Stuart Mill in 1859. Warning: For people interested in university and funder policies, journal licensing, repository deposits, citation impact, and taxpayer rights, this could be deadly dull. But for people with the philosophy gene, it could almost be interesting. The round-up section briefly notes 126 OA developments from May.
Editorial support for the EUA's OA recommendations Ignasi Labastida i Juan, Let's open the university! IPR Helpdesk, April-June 2008. An editorial. Excerpt:
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More on OA to previously published journal literature Bora Zivkovic, Historical OA, A Blog Around the Clock, June 1, 2008. Excerpt:
Update. Klaus Graf has sent me some evidence that the OCA has been scanning journals. (Thanks, Klaus.) For example, see the collection of works digitized by the OCA at the U of Toronto. Run a blank search and the results include some journals. Or, see this page on the OCA at the Internet Archive. It has a box on recently scanned materials and an entry for the Revue archéologique (Volume ns vol 7). More on OA to legal information Carol Ebbinghouse, The New Surge of Open Legal Information on the Internet, Searcher, June 2008. The article itself is not online, but here's the online blurb for it in the table of contents:
New OA journal on governance in decline Behemoth is a new, peer-reviewed OA journal of civilization from Leipzig University. (Thanks to NuT.) The inaugural issue is now online, with articles in German and English. Here's a little more on its topic:
Draft bylaws from organization of OA publishers The incipient Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) has released a draft of its bylaws. Excerpt:
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