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Hungarian Academy joins SCOAP3 The Physical Sciences Section of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has joined CERN's SCOAP3 project. Liz O'Brien, Library struggles to keep up with journal demand, The Santa Clara (student newspaper at Santa Clara University), February 21, 2008. (Thanks to LIS News.) Excerpt:
When compliance with copyright law undermines the purpose of copyright law In his February 24 ethics column for the New York Times, Randy Cohen argues that it's illegal but "not always unethical" to copy and share the full text of a book which is out of print but still under copyright. In fact, this kind of sharing promotes the purpose of copyright law (in the US, "to promote the progress of science and useful arts"), while letting the book's ideas "slip into darkness" would "undermine its purpose". Cohen was responding to a reader's question about a particular book on aviation by Richard Coffey. When Cohen contacted Coffey, Coffey said, "I'm pleased [readers] still find it useful. They're welcome to post it and make copies." Special issue of OSBR on open data The February issue of Open Source Business Resource is devoted to Open Data. Here are the articles:
Richard Poynder interviews John Wilbanks Richard Poynder, The Open Access Interviews: John Wilbanks, Open and Shut? February 22, 2008. Excerpt:
Profile of the Open Data Commons Project Jordan Hatcher, Implementing Open Data: The Open Data Commons Project, Open Source Business Resource, February 2008. Excerpt:
Per Ian Mulvany's post on February 22, users can now login to Connotea with their OpenID.
Comment. Here's to more OA software using OpenID, sparing us from creating a new username on every different site. Variations on the theme of the Harvard OA policy Stevan Harnad, The Hybrid Copyright Retention and Deposit Mandate, Open Access Archivangelism, February 22, 2008. Excerpt:
New issue of i4d on open publishing
The February 2008 issue of i4d, with the theme of open publishing, is now online. (Thanks to Sukhdev Singh.) Topics include Project Gutenberg, the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, OA and biomedical research, and others.
The January 2008 issue of Ariadne is now online. At least four articles are relevant to OA or repositories:
The library as an OA publisher Leo Waaijers, Can the library be a publisher? A slide presentation at Openingscongres Bibliotheek (Wageningen, February 21, 2008). (Thanks to Wouter Gerritsma.) New OA student journal on sustainable development
Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development is a new, peer-reviewed OA journal led by students at Columbia University. Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia�s Earth Institute, helped launch the journal on February 18. (Thanks to Science Progress.)
The inaugural issue is now online, or in PDF here. From the inaugural issue's Note from Editors: Comment. Also posted at Open Students. More comments on the Harvard OA policy Here's another batch of comments on the new Harvard OA mandate. From the anonymous author of Easily Distracted:
From an editorial in the Los Angeles Times:
From Andrew Lawler in Science (accessible only to subscribers):
From John Mark Ockerbloom in Everybody's Libraries:
From Ivor Tossell in Globe and Mail:
Sweden supports open research data The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) is funding 22 new databases of research data. From Co-Action's English-language summary of the Swedish announcement (February 14, 2008):
PS: Co-Action tells me that the Research Council's goal is to make the data OA whenever that is consistent with the law and the privacy of individuals. Case study in digitizing 100 years of a journal backfile for OA Rose Holley, Delivering Full Text Collections: The Journal of the Polynesian Society Digital Initiative, a PPT slide presentation at the University of Auckland, February 2007. Self-archived February 18, 2008.
PS: The project is to digitize the first 100 years of the JPS backfile, from 1892 to 1991. Current issues will apparently not be OA.
On global vs. institutional repositories
Andy Powell, Repositories follow-up - global vs. institutional, eFoundations, February 20, 2008. Some musings on the value of global vs. institutional repositories.
A publisher highlights its OA policies
Heather Morrison, nowpublishers.com and Authors Advantages, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, February 20, 2008.
OA video repository in New Jersey
Grace Agnew, George G. Laskaris, and Charles W. McMickle, NJVid - A Statewide Video-on-Demand Repository, Net@EDU (Tempe, Arizona, February 10-14, 2008). Abstract:
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a 3-year grant for nearly a million dollars to a partnership between William Paterson University, Rutgers University Libraries and NJEDge.Net to develop and deploy a statewide academic video-on-demand repository. The digital video repository (Fedora Commons-based) will he housed in the core of the NJEDge network and will provide "lectures-on-demand", licensed commercial videos, and locally owned videos. A Video Commons collection will be publically available including history, lectures from notables, and video documenting research and scientific advances. NJVid is notable for providing a statewide video strategy to accommodate any type of organization-higher education, K12, public libraries, museums and archives. A substantial part of this project will provide the resources to develop a statewide Shibboleth-based Identity management infrastructure, supporting statewide network authentication and authorization that can be used for many content resources. This presentation will describe the open source architecture and middleware applications that are under development. Much effort will be expended for an extensible approach that can be implemented by other statewide or consortial video initiatives. Triangle Research Libraries Network joins Open Content Alliance
Members of the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) -- Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- announced on February 19 their partnership with the Open Content Alliance (OCA). From the announcement:
In the first year, UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University will each convert 2,700 public domain books into high-resolution, downloadable, reusable digital files that can be indexed locally and by any web search engine. UNC Chapel Hill and NCSU will start by each hosting one state-of-the-art Scribe machine provided by the Internet Archive to scan the materials at a cost of just 10 cents per page. Each university library will focus on historic collection strengths, such as plant and animal sciences, engineering and physical science at NCSU and social sciences and humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill. Duke University will also contribute select content for digitization during the first year of the collaborative project. CC licenses now displaying 'Free Cultural Works' badge
As of February 20, three Creative Commons licenses -- Attribution, Attribution-ShareAlike, and the Public Domain dedication -- now display a badge indicating the license is "Approved for Free Cultural Works". These are the CC licenses approved by the Definition of Free Cultural Works. See the announcement by Mike Linksvayer.
Web 2.0 technologies and science
Ian Mulvany, Science and Web 2.0, February 20,2008. A slide presentation given to PhD students from the University of Utrecht on February 11. (Thanks to Graham Steel.)
U.S. Army to restore access to digital library
Steven Aftergood, Army Says It Will Restore Public Access to Online Library, Secrecy News, February 21, 2008.
Comment. OAN blogged the story when the Army closed access to the site. Swedish university adopts an OA policy The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, or SLU) has adopted an OA policy. (Thanks to Forskarbloggen.) From the English-language edition:
Comments
After eight months, 27% compliance with Wellcome Trust OA mandate Zoe Corbyn, Low compliance with open-access rule criticised, Times Higher Education, February 21, 2008. Excerpt:
Update. Also see Stevan Harnad's detailed comment at the newspaper site (no deep link), reprinted this morning on his blog. Excerpt:
Update. Also see the Wellcome Trust's own announcement of the compliance figures (February 21, 2008). Excerpt:
Stevan Harnad replies to Mike Carroll Yesterday Mike Carroll wrote three blog posts (1, 2, 3) which included some disagreements with Stevan Harnad about the Harvard policy and copyright. Today Stevan wrote a response, Upgrade Harvard's Opt-Out Copyright Retention Mandate: Add a No-Opt-Out Deposit Mandate. Excerpt:
Comments
Lila Guterman, Celebrations and Tough Questions Follow Harvard's Move to Open Access, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2008 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt:
Update. Also see Gavin Baker's comments on Sanford Thatcher's quoted remarks. NIH-funded authors and fee-based OA journals Springer recently sent a memo to researchers on using Springer Open Choice journals to comply with the NIH OA policy. Excerpt:
Comments
Profile of Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg
Terry Hancock, Impossible thing #2: Comprehensive free knowledge repositories like Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg, Free Software Magazine, February 19, 2008. A profile and analysis of the Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg OA projects.
Interview with Liz Allen of PLoS
Bora Zivkovic, PLoS, it rhymes with floss: Interview with Liz Allen, A Blog Around the Clock, February 19, 2008.
SCOAP3 Day at PhysMath Central
Chris Leonard, Friday, March 7th: SCOAP3 day on PhysMath Central, PhysMath Central Blog, February 20, 2008.
Delaware IR gets its first faculty books
On February 19, the University of Delaware's institutional repository deposited its first books by a faculty member. From the press release:
Data repository for 3 Dutch universities
Three Dutch technical universities announced on February 19 their plans to create a consortial data repository. (Thanks to Wouter Gerritsma.) From the press release:
Comment. Per Wouter Gerritsma, the announcement doesn't make clear if the repository will be open access, a dark archive, or some other form of limited access. Update (from Peter). Wouter has written to confirm that the repository will be OA. Cell Press executives talks about OA “We instituted a modified open access policy”, The Hindu, February 21, 2008. An interview with Emilie Marcus and Lynne Herndon of Cell Press. Marcus is the Editor-in-Chief and Herndon is the CEO. Excerpt:
Comments
Mike Carroll on OA, copyright, and the NIH and Harvard policies Mike Carroll has written a cluster of three related posts on OA, copyright, and the NIH and Harvard policies (February 20, 2008). Mike is a professor at Villanova University School of Law and a member of the Board of Creative Commons. (1) NIH and Harvard - It's About Values
(2) Harvard policy - Response to Stevan Harnad
(3) Copyright and OA - Response to Stevan Harnad
PS: If Stevan responds, I'll blog an excerpt and link. If Mike and Stevan continue the conversation after that, I'll blog links only. The best way to follow the full dialogue is to follow their two blogs (Mike, Stevan). More OA videos from more universities The Wired Campus (from the Chronicle of Higher Education) reports that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Purdue University, Texas Tech University, and Vanderbilt University have launched channels on YouTube. In addition, Ferris State University, the Institute of Construction & Management Technology, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering have launched channels at The University Tube. Watch the comment section the the Wired Campus post. Readers are still adding new links. Another tool to make OA info more useful Neil R. Smalheiser, Wei Zhou, and Vetle I. Torvik, Anne O'Tate: A tool to support user-driven summarization, drill-down and browsing of PubMed search results, Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, February 15, 2008. (Thanks to ResourceShelf.) Abstract:
The Slovak Republic became the 11th country to join CERN's SCOAP3 project.
State of OA in folklore studies, part 2
Jason Baird Jackson, Open Access Folkloristics (Part 2), Open Access Anthropology, February 20, 2008.
Part 2 of the review of the field, the former half of which we blogged earlier.
eIFL launches portal of IRs from developing and transition countries
On February 18, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) announced the launch of
... a portal for 97 institutional repositories from 16 developing and transition countries (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Namibia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Ukraine and Zimbabwe) and this number is growing. It now gives every visitor free access to 141,165 full-text research findings in a consistent and harmonised way. ...Comment. Peter blogged some background on this in January.
Gene Koo, Harvard's open publishing policy and the outlook for law schools, Law School Innovation, February 19, 2008.
On February 18, Johns Hopkins University Libraries announced the creation of JScholarship, a institutional repository for JHU.
Update. Also see Laura Dingle's article about it in the Johns Hopkins Newsletter.
Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN), announced on Feb. 12 that its proposal to the European Commission has been selected for negotiations on funding. OAPEN is a consortium of European university and museum presses which will publish OA monographs in the humanities and social sciences. From the announcement:
Does no green archiving = no green dollars?
Heather Morrison, Whither white, fair RoMEO?, The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, February 15, 2008.
More on the state of OA in anthropology
Michael E. Smith, The AAA Discusses Open Access, Publishing Archaeology, February 15, 2008.
Comment. Peter earlier blogged the issue of Anthropology News. Status of OA in folklore studies
Jason Baird Jackson, Open Access Folkloristics (Part 1), Open Access Anthropology, February 16, 2008.
Logic journal converting to OA After 27 years as a TA journal, Informal Logic: Reasoning and Argumentation in Theory and Practice is converting to OA, starting with the March 2008 issue. IL is published by the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric at the University of Windsor. Helping authors find OA-friendly journals Heather Morrison, Journals: if you are author rights friendly, let everyone know! Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, February 18, 2008. Excerpt:
Comments
Mike Linksvayer, CC0 beta/discussion draft feedback and next step, Creative Commons blog, February 16, 2008.
Latest beta of DSpace released
DSpace 1.5 Beta 1 was released on February 13. (Thanks to Charles Bailey.) See also Richard Jones' notes on the release.
More notes on OA Collections workshop
Peta Hopkins, Open Access Collections, Innovate, February 16, 2008. Blog notes on the Open Access Collections workshop by the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (February 14, Brisbane).
We earlier blogged the presentations and Peter Murray-Rust's notes on the conference.
Barbara Fister, Face Value, Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2008. (Thanks to Slashdot.)
"Other schools should follow Harvard's lead" Open access to brilliant insights, Boston Globe, February 19, 2008. An editorial. Excerpt:
Update (2/27/08). Also see the letter to the editor in response to this editorial from H. Frederick Dylla, Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics. New OA journal of new music and culture Search: Journal for New Music and Culture is a new peer-reviewed OA journal. The inaugural issue is now online. (Thanks to The Rambler.) Entrepreneurs are already finding business opportunities in the growing volume of OA literature available from the NIH. From a press release issued today by Presenter, Inc.:
PS: I can't find a web site for the Beijing-based Presenter, Inc., but I'm pretty sure it's not the same as the Presenter, Inc. acquired by Webex in 2003.
Presentations from Open Access Collections workshop
The presentations from the Open Access Collections workshop by the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (February 14, Brisbane) are now available.
Guide to implementing the NIH public access policy
Association of Research Libraries today announced the availability of a Web-based guide to assist research institutions in implementing the new NIH public access policy.
Open data to accelerate drug discovery Andrea Anderson, Structural Genomics Consortium Head Urges Open Access to Boost Drug Development, GenomeWeb Daily News, February 18, 2008. Excerpt:
Harvard inspires another student newspaper to call for a local OA mandate It's time for Open Access, Swarthmore Daily Gazette, February 18, 2008. An editorial. Excerpt:
PS: Also see the Harvard-inspired editorials calling for OA at Boston College and New York University. Stimulating work on the grand challenges of engineering The US National Academy of Engineering has identified 14 Grand Challenges for Engineeering in the 21st century (February 15, 2008). Thanks to John Daly for the alert and this summary:
Comment. The idea is clearly to stimulate work on these challenges, which I applaud. Another, entirely compatible way to stimulate work on the same challenges is to ensure OA to the relevant literature and data. The NAE could help this cause by calling for OA in engineering, by documenting the connection between OA and research productivity, and by endorsing the principle that the more knowledge matters, the more open access to that knowledge matters. Interview with Christina Pikas Bora Zivkovic, Librarians have been doing it for a hundred years! Interview with Christina Pikas, A Blog Around the Clock, February 17, 2008. Excerpt:
Comments. Just two quick ones:
More on the Princeton-Stanford OA repository for classics David Pritchard, Working Papers, Open Access and Cyber-Infrastructure in Classical Studies, a preprint forthcoming from Literary and Linguistic Computing.
Update (5/26/08). The LLC edition is now online. It's not OA. New OA journal of social science research on South Asia The South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal is a new peer-reviewed OA journal of social science research on South Asia. (Thanks to antropologi.info.) The inaugural issue is now online. Searching OA journals in the humanities Mike van Eerden has launched Search Pigeon, a collection of Google Co-op search engines covering English-language OA journals in the humanities. From the site:
Gutenberg-e books now OA, but biz. model concerns
Robert B. Townsend, Gutenberg-e Books Now Available Open Access and through ACLS Humanities E-Book, American Historical Association Blog, February 13, 2008. (Thanks to The History Librarian.)
Update. Also see the story in Library Journal Academic Newswire. Update. Also see the story in the Chronicle of Higher Education (accessible only to subscribers). Update. Also see the story in HASTAC and Barbara Fister's comment at ACRLog. Update. Also see the letter from Jim Jordan, President and Director of Columbia University Press, February 28, 2008, or my blogged excerpt. New documents on the ARROW project
There are 5 new slide sets available on the ARROW (Australian Research Repositories Online to the World) project, each uploaded February 15, 2008:
Andy Powell, Repositories thru the looking glass, eFoundations, February 13, 2008. Notes from his keynote address at the VALA (formerly the Victorian Association for Library Automation) 2008 conference (held February 5-7 in Melbourne, Australia).
Comment. We blogged the slides from this and other presentations from the conference a few days ago. Interview with Bill Hooker on OA and open science
Bora Zivkovic, Getting Publishing up to Speed: Interview with Bill Hooker, A Blog Around the Clock, February 14, 2008.
... How is a scientific paper going to look in 20 years from now? How is that going to affect the way scientific research (and teaching) is done? More on OA editions and print sales
Tom Peters, Free and Fleeting, ALA Techsource, February 11, 2008.
Comment (by Peter). I commend HarperCollins for trying this experiment. Unfortunately, the registration requirement, mandatory survey, and time limit of one month of free access per book will reduce the visibility of the texts, reduce traffic to the site, and distort the experiment. U.S. Army blocks access to digital library
Steven Aftergood, Army Blocks Public Access to Digital Library, Secrecy News, February 13, 2008. (Thanks to Free Government Information.)
More comments on the Harvard OA mandate Here's another batch of comments on the new Harvard OA mandate. From Paul Courant at Au Courant:
From Jonathan Eisen at Tree of Life:
From Peter Murray-Rust at The CML Blog:
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