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Supply and demand in a world without scarcity Glyn Moody interviewed Mike Masnick in The Guardian, November 1, 2007. Masnick is the author of Techdirt. The conversation focuses on music, movies, and news, but how far do Masnick's observations transfer to research literature? Excerpt:
Update on the OA mandate at NIH (1) On Thursday, the House-Senate conference committee finished the job of reconciling the House and Senate versions of the LHHS appropriations bill (containing the OA mandate at the NIH). The committee also decided to yoke the resulting bill together with a second appropriations bill on Veterans Affairs. President Bush had threatened to veto the former, but expressed support for the latter. The idea, clearly, is to make it harder for him to veto the combined package. Earlier in the process, Bush threatened to veto a three-bill combo, but has not indicated his thoughts on this two-bill combo. (2) An authoritative source tells me that the NIH provision in the final LHHS bill survived the conference committee intact. But I haven't been able to confirm this yet from a public source. If true, this means the OA mandate has cleared another major hurdle. The last hurdle remaining is the possibility of a Presidential veto. For reasons not to despair in case Bush does veto the bill, and for some of our post-veto strategies, see my article in yesterday's issue of SOAN. (3) When Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) withdrew his two anti-OA amendments to the LHHS appropriations bill, he and Sen Michael Enzi (R-WY) filed a "colloquy" or speech to be added to the legislative history. Its primary purpose was to influence the conference committee to strike or weaken the NIH provision before sending the bill to the president. Here's the text of the colloquy (from the Congressional Record for October 23, 2007), complete but for the opening and closing courtesies:
The conference committee decided to disregard the Enzi and Inhofe reservations. Another reverse-embargo journal from LMS The London Mathematical Society has launched the Journal of Topology, published by Oxford University Press. Like the three other Oxford-published LMS journals, this one is not OA, but it uses the rare and interesting access policy that could be called the reverse-embargo model: users worldwide have free online access for the first year after publication, whereupon the articles move behind a pay wall. For details on the Journal of Topology, see the November 1 announcement. More on society publishers with OA journals Gavin Baker, Scholarly societies and open access publishing, This place is pretty ugly, November 2, 2007. Excerpt:
PS: This is just the kind of follow-up Caroline and I hoped to get: the re-crunching of Phase One data, the methodological nits, and the suggestions for Phase Two. Thanks, Gavin.
Digitization and OA at Harvard Joshua Kearney, From Widener to the World Wide Web, Harvard Crimson, November 2, 2007. Excerpt:
Stephanie Pfirman and four co-authors, Maximizing Productivity and Recognition, Part 1: Publication, Citation, and Impact, Science, November 2, 2007.
PS: For some elaboration, see my version of the same advice. Rhetorical strategies to support OA Marcus Banks, Talk at the Public Library of Science, Marcus' World, November 2, 2007. Excerpt:
How libraries handle OA resources and educate users about OA Anna K. Hood, SPEC Kit 300: Open Access Resources, Association of Research Libraries, September 2007. (Thanks to Charles Bailey.) The link points to the OA executive summary and conclusion. The full report is a 140 pp. book available for $40 from Amazon. From the executive summary:
From the conclusion:
LibriVox releases its 1,000th free audiobook LibriVox just announced the milestone of its 1,000th free online audiobook. Excerpt:
PS: The Open Library from the Open Content Alliance has been using LibriVox audiobooks since late 2005. The October issue of Ariadne is now online. Here are the OA-related articles:
New OA journals coming from MedKnow MedKnow Publications will launch three peer-reviewed OA journals in 2008:
A number of other MedKnow OA journals have been included in PubMed, Science Citation Index, and CABI. For details, see the MedKnow what's new page. Update. Also see Andrew Leonard's comments. I just mailed the November issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter. This issue takes a close look at the recent vote in the Senate to require open access for NIH-funded research, and at the surprisingly large number of learned societies that publish OA journals. The round-up section briefly notes 118 OA developments from October.
Citizendium is one year old. From its birthday press release:
UK Prime Minister endorses public access to public info Michael Cross, PM embraces the notion of easier access to government data, The Guardian, November 1, 2007. Excerpt:
Open letter to the ACS, and a response Janet D. Stemwedel blogged an Open Letter to the ACS on October 25, and yesterday received a reply from Rudy Baum, Editor in Chief of Chemical & Engineering News. From Stemwedel's letter:
From Baum's response:
Comment. For background, "ACS Insider" alleged that ACS executives received bonuses based on the profits of ACS publications. I didn't edit out Baum's answer to the question about conflicts of interest; he didn't give an answer. But Madeleine Jacobs, executive director of the ACS, confirmed to the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 24 that "senior executives and some managers in the publishing division" did receive such incentives. Update. Paul Revere at Effect Measure has some pointed comments on Baum's response to Stemwedel: If I were polite, I'd say Baum's response was disingenuous. But I'm not so polite, so I'll just say I don't believe him.... The Dutch DARE project has released a four-page PDF brochure, Tailor-made access: The added value of repositories (in English). It's undated but seems to be new. DSpace enhancement from Griffith U From the DSpace Federation:
US Citizens: Thank your Senators Thank your Senators for continuing to support the NIH Public Access Policy, a press release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, October 31, 2007. Excerpt:
The press release includes the fax numbers of all 100 Senators. For other kinds of contact info (email and snail mail addresses, phone numbers), see CongressMerge. George Porter reports that Caltech has more than 8,000 items in its institutional repository.
What's attracting visitors to your IR? Brian Mathews, What gets viewed? An exploratory study of large IR collections, The Ubiquitous Librarian, October 31, 2007. Excerpt:
Whether or not to allow derivative works Thomas Lemberger, Open Access: Derivs or No Derivs? It's your call! The Seven Stones, November 1, 2007. Excerpt:
Molecular Systems Biology is an OA journal jointly published by Nature and EMBO. Lemberger is the editor. His message above is a revised version of a letter to the editor published yesterday in PLoS Biology. Here's a reply to Lemberger by Mark Patterson (PLoS Director of Publishing) and Catriona MacCallum (author of the article to which Lemberger was responding):
Comment. A few background thoughts:
Update. I elaborate and clarify these comments in a new post on November 4, 2007. Managing university IP to spur research, not revenue Iain Thomson, University calls for intellectual property rethink, Information World Review, October 31, 2007. Excerpt:
Comment. This is incredibly refreshing and forward looking. Is this something that only brand new, well-endowed universities could consider? Or could any university do it, perhaps by rereading its mission statement? Mandating OA for institutional performance review Stevan Harnad, Institutions: Don't Just Cancel Journals; Mandate Self-Archiving, Open Access Archivangelism, November 1, 2007. Excerpt:
OA to 126 years of research from the American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History is now providing OA to the full back runs of all four of its journal and book series:
(Thanks to antropologi.info.) Comment. AMNH launched its institutional repository in January 2006 and has been very busy filling it up ever since. Some museums are progressive in allowing free scholarly use of their images (e.g. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum), but I don't know of another museum with its own OA repository, let alone the AMNH's commitment to filling it. Kudos to all involved. An OA repository for Canada's National Research Council Alison Ball, Pilot project to provide open access to NRC publications, CIST News, Summer 2007. (Thanks to Heather Morrison.) Excerpt:
PS: Apparently NPArC is not yet online. I'll blog the URL as soon as it is. Launch of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Yesterday marked the official launch of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. From the about page:
From the Guest Commentary in the inaugural issue by Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization:
Also see Daniel Sarna's announcement on the PLoS Blog. Update. From Bora Zivkovic's blog announcement:
Using self-archived articles in South African classrooms Philipp Schmidt, Problems using self-archived articles in South African universities, Sharing Nicely, November 1, 2007. Excerpt:
Comment. I don't know South African copyright law. But if it blocks printing and redistribution of self-archived articles, or printing of multiple copies by teachers rather than single copies by students, then there are two solutions short of statutory reform. First, distribute links instead of copies. This depends on good connectivity for students, however, which cannot always be assumed. Second, get the author to put a CC-BY license or equivalent on the self-archived article. BTW, I don't skip over statutory reform because I think it would be radical or ineffective. On the contrary. I only skip over it because it's a very long, uphill climb and we don't have to wait for it. What's open at the Encyclopedia Britannica? Open.Britannica is Encyclopedia Britannica's way of highlighting the OA content from the EB. (Thanks to Intute.) But the effect is to highlight just how little there is --a blog, some timelines, and a service for linking to EB articles. WHO launches OA portal on tropical diseases TropIKA is a new OA portal for research and information on tropical diseases. (Thanks to SciDev.net.) From its about page:
Rick Weiss, Open Access to Research Funded by U.S. at Issue, Washington Post, November 1, 2007. Excerpt:
Comments
Update. Also see Mike Carroll's response to Allan Adler's comment on government intrusion.
Microsoft will digitize 100,000 books from Yale library Yale Library and Microsoft Partner on Ambitious Digital Project, a press release from Yale, October 30, 2007. Excerpt:
There's a good discussion thread on the Taxacom list. It starts with the Max Planck Society's cancellation of 1,200 Springer journals and moves on to OA journals, impact factors, and what researchers and their institutions can do to help the cause. (Thanks to Napoleon Miradon.) If institutions really want to make research dissemination more effective... Colin Steele, Alternatives to bonuses, The Australian Higher Education, October 31, 2007. A letter to the editor in response to an October 24 article by Bernard Lane in which Michael Good suggested that medical research institutions should pay faculty a bonus for publishing in high-impact journals. Excerpt:
Hybrid OA journal program from WorldSciNet and Imperial College WorldSciNet has launched WorldSciNet Open Access, a hybrid OA journal program that applies to all 133 journals published by WorldScientific and all eight journals published by Imperial College Press. From today's announcement:
More from the WorldSciNet Open Access page:
From the OA License to Publish:
At the same time, WorldSciNet announced its first full OA journal:
Comment. I commend WorldScientific for its full OA journal and (as usual) support the hybrid program only to the extent that it actually encourages author uptake and provides OA. Unfortunately, WorldSciNet Open Access does not score well on my nine criteria for a hybrid journal program. On the plus side, the OA edition is the same as the published edition, and WorldSciNet is not retreating from its green policy (say) by requiring self-archivers to pay for gold OA. It lets authors retain copyright "except as...provided" by the OA license to publish, and says the license is based on the CC-BY license. This looks like a plus until we read the details. In fact the license gives the publisher exclusive rights --either to all print and electronic distribution or to all commercial print and electronic distribution. Either way, it's more restrictive than a CC-BY license. The ambiguity of the license on this point makes it unclear whether authors may deposit their articles in repositories independent of the publisher. The publisher does not apparently waive publication fees in case of economic hardship and does not promise to reduce its subscription prices in proportion to author uptake. It is silent on whether authors must pay for the OA option in order to live up to a prior, independent agreement with their funding agency. Analyzing usage of an institutional repository The EPrints team has released an open-source tool to analyze IR usage. From yesterday's announcement:
Heather Morrison, Open Access to Scholarly Research: An Emerging Success Story in Emancipatory Communication, a presentation at Union of Democratic Communications: Enclosure, Emancipatory Communications, and the Global City, (Vancouver, October 25-28, 2007).
OA articles on anaesthesia in developing countries The December 2007 issue of Anaesthesia is devoted to anaesthesia in developing countries. The whole issue is free online. Canada's LAC supports OA for publicly-funded research Heather Morrison, Canadian Digital Information Strategy and Open Access, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, October 30, 2007. Excerpt:
Looking forward to the NIH mandate Bill Containing NIH Policy Ready for Conference; Implementation Looms, Library Journal Academic Newswire, October 30, 2007. Excerpt:
What are the terms of OCA contracts with libraries? Peter Hirtle, How open is the Open Content Alliance? LibraryLaw Blog, October 30, 2007. (Thanks to Klaus Graf.) Excerpt:
Update. Here's the contract between the Internet Archive, on behalf of the OCA, and the Boston Public Library, April 13, 2007. (Thanks to Rick Prelinger via John Mark Ockerbloom via Klaus Graf.) Update. Also see Peter Hirtle's comments on the OCA contract with the Boston Public Library.
European Digital Library talking to Google Doreen Carvajal, European libraries face problems in digitalizing, International Herald Tribune, October 28, 2007. Excerpt:
New series of OA journals in neuroscience Frontiers in Neuroscience is a new series of 14 peer-reviewed OA journals in neuroscience from the Frontiers Research Foundation. (Thanks to Talking Brains.) From the FAQ: "Frontiers will go public at the Society for Neuroscience meeting (Nov, 3rd -7th) in San Diego." From the About Frontiers page:
From the Frontiers Manifesto:
The presentations from the University of Edinburgh symposium, Sustaining the Digital Library (Edinburgh, September 13-14, 2007), are now online. About half of them are OA-related. (Thanks to Colin Steele.)
Academic freedom includes sharing knowledge as a public good Academic Freedom in the 21st-Century College and University, the Statement on Academic Freedom from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), September 2007. (Thanks to John Ober.) Excerpt:
New OA journal of astronomy for the general public Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal (CAPJ) is a new peer-reviewed OA journal from the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The inaugural issue (October 2007) is now online. (Thanks to Joe Kraus.) Removing patent barriers in the pharma industry Open Access Drugs, ChemSpy, October 29, 2007. Excerpt:
University press issues OA editions of its OP books The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is publishing OA editions of its out-of-print books. From today's announcement:
Comment. This is an excellent idea. Instead of letting OP books disappear from view, the original publishers should issue OA editions. One day presses will routinely publish monographs in dual OA/TA editions, and use the OA editions to increase the visibility and sales of the TA editions. But for presses reluctant to adopt that model today, creating an OA edition of an OP book is a small investment with large gains for the author, for readers, and for the press. The RePEc team has launched a RePEc blog. From the inaugural post on October 25, by Christian Zimmermann:
Comment. RePEc is one of the long-running success stories of the OA movement, launched more than 10 years ago (May 1997). I'm very glad to see it plant a flag in the blogosphere. The EPrints team has issued a Call for Plugins. (Thanks to Stevan Harnad.) Excerpt:
Progress on the OA repository for Nordic arts and humanities If you remember, in May 2007 the Copenhagen University Library announced an e-print archive for Nordic arts and humanities. The archive now has a name, hprints and a URL (www.hprints.org/), although for now the URL resolves to the May announcement. However, the hprints blog reports today that the project has chosen the HAL archiving software from CNRS. (Thanks to Bertil Dorch.) More on the value of access for lay readers Jon Danzig, Acromegaly: My DIY diagnosis, The Independent, October 29, 2007. (Thanks to Matt Cockerill.) This is Danzig's first-person story of how he correctly diagnosed his own acromegaly after years of inaccurate diagnoses by his doctors and consulting specialists. He doesn't describe the kind of research he did to make the diagnosis, so we don't know that he used OA literature. All we know is that OA literature makes this kind of research much easier. More on the ACS campaign against OA Yesterday I received an email from "Miss Phlogiston", another insider at the American Chemical Society. As with the original "ACS Insider" (see one, two), I know nothing about the pseudonymous author. Excerpt from her message:
The presentations from the International Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects (Beijing, October 11-12, 2007) are now online. Several focus on institutional repositories. The Open Semiotics Resource Center is a one-stop shop for OA resources on semiotics. It has an OA repository for papers on semiotics, an OA encyclopedia of semiotics, and a peer-reviewed OA journal, The Public Journal of Semiotics, launched in January 2007. (Thanks to the Scout Report.) arXiv is opening up its API. From the arXiv API front page:
Thanks to Programmable Cells for the alert and for these comments:
New coordination, investment, and momentum for the European Digital Library Building the European Digital Library: calls for greater cooperation, a press release from JISC, October 27, 2007. Excerpt:
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