Open Access NewsNews from the open access movement Jump to navigation |
|||||||||||||||
Common retrieval system for high-energy physics Richard Sietmann, Neue Informationsplattform für die Hochenergiephysiker, Heise Online, May 21, 2008. (Thanks to Informationsplattform Open Access.) Read it in the original German or Google's English. CERN, DESY, Fermilab and SLAC are building a common retrieval platform for research in high-energy physics. If I understand it, the idea is not to replace arXiv, SPIRES, CDS, or JACoW, but to provide a common interface for them. Update (5/28/08). Also see the DESY press release on the new system (in English). Excerpt:
Update (5/28/08). Jens Vigen at CERN points me to these two documents for background:
Update (5/29/08). Also see Travis Brooks, SPIRES to become INSPIRE, SymmetryBreaking, May 29, 2008. Collateral damage from the death of Live Search Books Klaus Graf points out some potential damage from the death of Microsoft Live Search Books:
Harvesting chemical data from published articles Peter Murray-Rust has blogged some notes on his talk at the Royal Society of Chemistry meeting, Open Access Publishing in the Chemical Sciences (London, May 22, 2008). First he endorses Christoph Steinbeck's summary of his talk and then adds some additional notes:
UNESCO IFAP strategic plan includes support for OA On Thursday, UNESCO's Information for All Programme released its (Revised) Draft Strategic Plan (2008 – 2013) and a call for comments. Comments are due before the end of May 2008. From the draft:
In a table on p. 39, the draft aligns the UNESCO goal to "Collect...good practices in using information for development made available to decision makers", with the WSIS Action Line C3i to "Encourage initiatives to facilitate access, including free and affordable access to open access journals and books, and open archives for scientific journals (C3i)". Microsoft phases out Academic Search, Book Search, and book digitization Book search winding down, Microsoft Live Search blog, May 23, 2008. Excerpt:
Update. From Miguel Helft in the New York Times, May 24, 2008:
Update. Coincidentally, Péter Jacsó reviewed Microsoft Live Academic Search in his latest column for Gale (April 2008). The review is strongly negative:
Notes from the RSC meeting on OA in chemistry Christoph Steinbeck has blogged some notes about the Royal Society of Chemistry meeting, Open Access Publishing in the Chemical Sciences (London, May 22, 2008). Excerpt:
OA for Landsat images back to 1972 Curtis E. Woodcock and 17 co-authors, Free Access to Landsat Imagery, Science Magazine, May 23, 2008 (accessible only to subscribers). A letter to the editor. (Thanks to Garrett Eastman.) Excerpt:
The Open Access Directory (OAD) just opened an OA speakers bureau for community editing and enlargement. Remember that OAD is a wiki. If you've ever spoken about OA at a conference or workshop, or would like to, please add yourself to this list. It's not very full today, but today is only Day One. I hope we can make it much more comprehensive in the coming weeks. Personal note: Five or six years ago, an item near the top of my wish list was for the OA movement to have 100-200 people, rather than just 10-20, who could speak competently about OA. We've definitely surpassed that goal, and now have knowledgeable advocates in every field, country, and language. The purpose of this list is simply to help conference organizers find them.
Architect of Harvard OA policy heads new Office of Scholarly Communication Stuart M. Shieber to lead new OSC, Harvard Gazette, May 22, 2008. Excerpt:
JISC tackles the problem of version control JISC has published the recommendations at the core of its Version Identification Framework (VIF). From yesterday's announcement:
Harvard's OA Journal of Legal Analysis now open for submissions The OA Journal of Legal Analysis from Harvard University Press is now accepting submissions. (Thanks to Gene Koo.) The inaugural issue should appear in the Fall of 2008. For background, see the planning announcement from July 2007. OA for Canadian geodata boosts downloads 54-fold From a Conservation Commons listserv post today by Tom Hammond (thanks to Mick Wilson):
The jump in downloads occurred between April 1, 2007, when the OA policy took effect, and March 31, 2008. Updated links for OA Webliography Charles Bailey and Adrian Ho have updated the links on their Open Access Webliography. Preview of the CLA statement on OA Heather Morrison, CLA Position Statement on Open Access for Canadian Libraries, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, May 21, 2008. Excerpt:
Comments. Kudos to the CLA for this enlightened statement, and to Heather for breaking the story. Many organizations have called on their governments to mandate OA for publicly-funded research, but the CLA is first I've seen to regard embargo periods as a temporary compromise, justified only to help publishers adapt during a transition period. More on open data in chemistry Peter Murray-Rust, RSC Open Access - what I think I’m going to say, A Scientist and the Web, May 22, 2008. Peter is referring to his talk today at Open Access Publishing in the Chemical Sciences (London, May 22, 2008). Excerpt:
Comment. I follow and agree with all of this, with one exception: "Green Open Access is irrelevant to Open Data (I think it makes it harder, others disagree)." I don't understand the claim or the argument, but I imagine we'll hear more in time. Good luck today, Peter! Update (5/25/08). Peter Murray-Rust has replied to my comment in a blog post (thanks Peter), and I've blogged some new comments in response. Update (5/26/08). See PMR's response to my latest comments. A call on Oberlin to follow the Harvard example A New Approach to Scholarship Access, The Oberlin Review, February 29, 2008. An editorial. (Thanks to Ray English.) Excerpt:
More misunderstanding of OA journal business models Raghavendra Gadagkar, Open-access more harm than good in developing world, Nature, May 22, 2008. A letter to the editor (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt:
Comments
Update. Also see comments by Stevan Harnad, Barbara Kirsop, Thomas Mailund, and RPM. Update (5/26/08). Stevan Harnad has updated his reply to Gadagkar in a blog post. Excerpt:
More on the costs of scholarly communications Activities, costs and funding flows in the scholarly communications system in the UK, a new report from the Research Information Network (RIN), May 2008. From the summary:
Comment. I focus on the conclusion in the third-to-last bullet point above: "research-intensive institutions would tend to pay more in publication fees than they currently do for library subscriptions...."
Update. Michael Jubb of RIN has pointed me to a section of the full report (2.7.2) in which the authors acknowledge different business models for OA journals. (Thanks, Michael.) But not even that section acknowledges that the majority of OA journals charge no publication fees.
Kevin Holden Platt, Study Warned of China Quake Risk Nearly a Year Ago, National Geographic, May 16, 2008. (Thanks to Kathleen Shearer.) Excerpt:
More misunderstanding of the NIH policy Colin G. Scanes, Open Access —A Case for Intellectual Honesty, Poultry Science Online, 87 (2008) pp. 1003-1004. An editorial. Not even an abstract is free online, at least so far. Excerpt:
Comments
Sara Lloyd, A book publisher’s manifesto - Part VI (The End), The Digitalist, May 21, 2008. Excerpt:
Update (10/21/08). Lloyd's full article has now been published in Library Trends, Summer 2008 (not OA). Free software for free access to information Georgina Araceli Torres Vargas and Juan Manuel Zurita Sánchez, Software libre y libre accesso a la información : ¿Hacia un ciberespacio público? in Documentación de las Ciencias de la Información 30 (2007) pp. 135-148. Self-archived today. In Spanish but with this English-language abstract:
Sandra Di Majo, Per l’accesso alla letteratura scientifica: i Consorzi, la CRUI, CARE, in Proceedings La biblioteca scientifica e tecnologica: servizi per l'informazione scientifica, Roma (Italy), 2008. Self-archived today. In Italian but with this English-language abstract:
Milestone for Indian Institute of Science IR The institutional repository of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) just passed the milestone of 10,000 deposits. (Thanks to Subbiah Arunachalam.) OA to 33 year backfile of JEEM The Company of Biologists is providing OA to the full backfile (1953-1986) of the Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology. In 1986, the journal became Development, which COB continues to publish. For details, see yesterday's announcement. Division on the Orphan Works Act of 2008 Friends of OA are dividing on the Orphan Works Act of 2008 (H.R. 5889 and S. 2913), now under consideration in both houses of Congress.
Facilitating the exchange of chemical data PubChem has released the beta of its PUG SOAP (Power User Gateway Simple Object Access Protocol). From the site:
Two OA activists win Berkman Awards Educators, Activists, Entrepreneurs, and Lawyers Win Berkman Awards for Internet Innovation, a press release from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, May 19, 2008. Excerpt:
PS: Congratulations to all seven winners: Esra'a Al Shafei, Richard Baraniuk, John Breen, Jeffrey Cunard, Bruce Keller, Carl Malamud, and Noah Samara. For background on the two with an OA connection, see the past OAN posts on Richard Baraniuk (and Connexions) and Carl Malamud (and Public.Resource.Org). How libraries can support OA in developing countries Ifeyinwa B. Okoye, The Role of Academic Libraries in Universal Access to Print and Electronic Resources in the Developing Countries, Library Philosophy and Practice, 2008. Excerpt:
Gwenda Thomas, Evaluating the Impact of the Institutional Repository, or Positioning Innovation Between a Rock and a Hard Place, New Review of Information Networking, November 2007. Only this abstract is free online, at least so far:
The case that Nigerian statutes are in the public domain Emeka Maduewesi, Copyright: Who Owns the Rights to the Laws of Nigeria? This Day, May 19, 2008. Apparently Nigerian law has no provision requiring that government works be uncopyrightable. Hence, citizens must argue on other grounds that Nigerian statutes are in the public domain. Here's one such argument from a lawyer licensed to practice in Nigeria and California. Australian Senator renews call for OA to publicly-funded research Liz Tay, CeBIT 08: Senator Lundy lobbies for Open Source change, iTnews, May 21, 2008. Excerpt:
PS: Senator Lundy chaired a panel at the Australia 2020 Summit on open source and open access. See our post about it from April 12, 2008. More from Chris Anderson on the future of free Mark Andrews, Post-modern business model: It's free, Vancouver Sun, May 14, 2008. (Thanks to Allan Cho.) Excerpt:
Economic and Social Impact of the Public Domain, a project announcement from Rightscom and the European Commission. The announcement is dated April 2008 but was apparently released just this week. Excerpt:
Google Books and WorldCat records link to one another OCLC and Google to exchange data, link digitized books to WorldCat, a press release from OCLC, May 19, 2008. (Thanks to Mel DeSart.) Excerpt:
Update. Also see Barbara Quint's article about it in Information Today, May 22, 2008.
OA to GreyNet conference proceedings GreyNet is making its conference proceedings OA through the OpenSIGLE (Open System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe) repository. For details, see yesterday's announcement. Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) and Asinex have released an OA edition of the Asinex drug compound libraries through the CDD online drug discovery database. For details, see today's announcement. New OA journal on race, gender, and social activism Spaces for Difference is a new peer-reviewed OA journal on race, racism, gender, sexuality, and social activism published by the U of California as part of the eScholarship Repository Journal series. The inaugural issue is now online. Six Australian universities join SCOAP3 Six Australian universities have joined the CERN SCOAP3 project: Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Western Australia, New South Wales and the Australian National University. Update (7/7/08). Also see the article on PhysOrg.com. Detective work leading to OA for public domain books John Wilkin, Discovering the Undiscovered Public Domain, John Wilkin's blog, May 19, 2008. Excerpt:
Comment. Just as false convictions can put innocent people in prison, false assumptions of copyright can keep public-domain books behind price barriers or offline. In both cases, I have the greatest respect for the detectives who liberate them. Determining whether a book is under copyright or in the public domain shouldn't be this hard. As Lawrence Lessig said in the New York Times this morning, on the slightly different topic of orphan works,
But the work is hard. Let's make sure it isn't thankless. Amavi Tagodoe and El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Les expériences africaines de la diffusion libre du droit sur le Web : bilan et perspectives, Lex Electronica, Spring 2008. (Thanks to ServiceDoc Info.) In French but with this English-language summary:
Working for OA to public info in Greece Public information belongs to the public, Re-Public, undated but apparently today. An interview with Dimitrios Zachariadis, creator of Tilaphos and Tilaphos-reforest, two blogs on deforestation in Greece (in Greek). Excerpt:
India's Institute of Mathematical Sciences launches an IR India's Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) has launched the IMSc Eprint Archive. (Thanks to Subbiah Arunachalam.)
The Open Access Directory (OAD) just opened another list for community editing and enlargement: Remember that OAD is a wiki. You can help the cause by adding or revising entries. Enhancing access enhances output Information Philanthropy Initiatives: A Guide to Helping Libraries & Researchers Worldwide, Library Connect Pamphlet #11, April 28, 2008. (Thanks to Research Information.) From the sidebar on p. 10:
Update. Also see the Elsevier press release, May 19, 2008. Excerpt:
Update. Also see Katherine Nightingale's article in SciDev.Net for May 27, 2008:
Exactly. Enhancing access is bound to enhance research output. Any boost due to HINARI is bound to be mixed together with a greater boost due to OA. Latest additions to DOAJ: 19 new entries
The following journals were added to the Directory of Open Access Journals since May 12, most recent first:
The Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research is an OA, peer-reviewed journal by BioMed Central and the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (of Italy). The journal has been in publication since 1982; the move to BMC was announced on May 16. Previous backfiles, dating to 1999, are available here. Article-processing charges for accepted articles are �850 (�1070, US$1665), subject to discounts and waivers. Authors retain copyright and articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
New OA journal of biological physics
PMC Biophysics is a new peer-reviewed OA journal of biophysics, published by PhysMath Central. Read the May 16 announcement at the PMC blog. The article-processing charge for accepted articles is �750 (�1,100, US$1,320), subject to discounts and waivers. There is no article-processing charge for articles submitted before July 30. Authors retain the copyright of their articles and articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
ReStore workshop, JISC Information Environment Team blog, May 15, 2008.
Preview of Siyavula: an open education project for South Africa Simon Dingle, Siyavula to bring free and open resources to education, iCommons, May 19, 2008. Excerpt:
Planning an IR at Mexico's Nuevo Leon Autonomous University Zapopan Martín Muela-Meza, and José Antonio Torres-Reyes, Propuesta de Proyecto: Creación del Primer Repositorio Institucional de Acceso Abierto a toda la Investigación Científica y Profesional en la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, México, a preprint, self-archived May 15, 2008. In Spanish with an English abstract:
The IREL-Open project has now officially launched. (Thanks to OA@OCD.) From the site:
Comment. Note the green OA momentum in Ireland from this month alone. On May 1, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) adopted its exemplary OA mandate. On May 13, the Science Foundation Ireland released its draft OA mandate (based on the IRSET OA mandate) for public comment. And there are new institutional repositories at the Dublin Institute of Technology (the IR, our blog post) and the University of Limerick (the IR, our blog post). Update. Also see the IREL-Open brochure from the Irish Universities Association. Update. Here's a photo of the IREL-Open celebration. (Thanks to Dublin City University.) The University of Limerick has launched an institutional repository. (Thanks to OA@OCD.) The presentations from Open Access Repositories: New Models for Scholarly Communication (Zaria, Nigeria, April 28-29, 2008) are now online. Also see this report on the workshop from eIFL.net:
Also see the Communiqué issued by workshop participiants:
Calling on journals to join PubMed Central Michael Rogawski is calling on more biomedical journals join the list of journals participating in PubMed Central. Excerpt:
Comment. There are several ways in which journals can participate in PMC. They can deposit just the articles by their NIH-funded authors. If they are hybrid OA journals, they can deposit all their OA articles, whether or not by NIH-funded authors, and hold back their TA articles. They can deposit all their research articles, and hold back their review articles. Or they can deposit all their articles. In the wake of the new NIH OA mandate, more and more journals are deciding to deposit articles by their NIH-funded authors. That's good, but Rogawski is asking them to go further and consider depositing all their articles. This is important. Many journals may not realize that there are options beyond the first level. While the articles by NIH-funded authors must be deposited at the time of acceptance for publication, and released within 12 months of publication, journals depositing other kinds of articles may use the embargo or moving wall of their choice. For details on the criteria for participation, see How to Join PMC. Another OA implication of the Georgia State lawsuit Kevin Smith, Getting off the copyright merry-go-round, Scholarly Communications at Duke, May 17, 2008. Excerpt:
On his blog today, Peter Murray-Rust offers a preview of his talk at this week's meeting, Open Access Publishing in the Chemical Sciences (London, May 22, 2008). He welcomes feedback that he can incorporate before Thursday. Excerpt:
Update. Also see Stevan Harnad's comment:
Le Mensuel de l’Université interviews Daniel Charnay on OA and HAL, March 21, 2008. (Thanks to the INIST Libre Accès blog.) Charnay is a senior engineer at CNRS' Institut de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3) and Director of the Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD). HAL is a project of the CCSD. Read the interview in the original French or in Google's English.
Universities with green OA mandates haven't stopped paying for peer review Stevan Harnad, On Parasitism and Double-Dipping: I (of 2), Open Access Archivangelism, May 17, 2008.
Also see, On Parasitism and Double-Dipping: II (2nd of 2), May 18, 2008. Excerpt:
Comments
OA on another shortlist of scientific breakthroughs Technut News has compiled a list of Biotech Breakthroughs: 15 Developments That Will Eventually Affect YOUR Life. OA is the one development on the list not specifically from biomedicine. Excerpt:
|