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Mary Anne Kennan and Fletcher T. H. Cole, Institutional repositories as portents of change: Disruption or reassembly? Conjectures and reconfigurations, presented at ASIS&T Annual Meeting, (Columbus, Ohio, October 24-29, 2008); self-archived January 14, 2009. Abstract:
This paper reviews how Open Access policies (OA) and Institutional Repositories (IR) might be portrayed as agents of change within the realm of scholarly publishing. Using commentary on academic publishing as background, commentary that sees OA and IR as optimal and inevitable, and beneficially disruptive of the existing system, two theoretical approaches are presented as ways of providing a more detailed and explicit analysis of OA/IR dynamics. Both theories to varying degrees derive their inspiration from an exploration of the nature of change. The first �disruptive technology/disruptive innovation� approach (Christensen) specifies change in market theory terms, a re-structuring "driven" by innovation within, and possibly disruptive of, existing market arrangements. The second approach views change as a process of "reassembling" and reconfiguring of relationships between elements of a network (Actor-Network Theory). The application of both approaches to OA/IR is explored, including reference to a case study on a university institutional repository implementation. While "disruption" and similar terms might be in common and casual use, the basic idea gains greater clarity in these theories, and in doing so promotes greater awareness of the assumptions being made, and the aspirations being pursued. Presentation on publishing with OJS
Arlene Mathison, Libraries and Publishing: Using Open Journal Systems, presented at the Transportation Librarians Roundtable (November 13, 2008). Slides with audio. (Thanks to the Public Knowledge Project.)
Eric Steinhauer on OA in Germany In November 2008, Maxi Kindling und Sandra Lechelt of Libreas conducted a 28:32 minute podcast interview with Eric Steinhauer (in German) on OA in higher education. There is also a transcript, which you can read in German or Google's English. Steinhauer is a lawyer and Vice Director of the Library at the University of Magdeburg. (Thanks to Klaus Graf.) German government will re-evaluate rejected OA proposal The German federal government's 2008 media and communications report (Medien- und Kommunikationsbericht der Bundesregierung 2008) was published last month, December 17, 2008. (Thanks to KoopTech.) It's a PDF, so I can't link to a machine translation. At pp. 76-77, the government says it will re-evaluate a 2006 proposal for a secondary exploitation right for authors (Zweitverwertungsrecht f�r Urheber) of scientific research articles based on publicly-funded research. The proposal is based on an excellent idea of Gerd Hansen's which I wrote about in SOAN for June 2006:
The government rejected the idea in 2006 and German law does not currently incorporate it. The government is not promising to support it this time, but its willingness to re-evaluate it has to count as good news. (Thanks to Sebastian Krujatz for help in understanding the government's position.) Joe Gollner, The Emergence of Intelligent Content: The evolution of open content technologies and their significance, January 6, 2009. Apparently a preprint. (Thanks to Alles over Content Management.) Excerpt:
From the Introduction:
Another publicly-funded digitization project chooses TA The Burney Collection of 17th and 18th newspapers was digitized in a public-private partnership, but the results are TA rather than OA. (Thanks to Glyn Moody.) From a JISC press release (January 13):
Comment. Publicly-funded digitization projects have a lot to learn from publicly-funded research projects. The same principle that requires OA for publicly-funded research requires OA for publicly-funded digitization, especially when the works being digitized are in the public domain. The principle applies when "all or part" of the funding is from taxpayers. When this principle would scare off private funders, and the public funding isn't enough to complete the project, then we can offer the private funder a temporary revenue stream from a toll booth on public property, in exchange for its investment, by analogy with the embargo periods on publicly-funded research. But like an embargo, this is a compromise with the public interest and must expire. If it doesn't expire, then for some fraction of the cost of digitization, private companies could essentially buy exclusive rights to works in the public domain. The damage is notable even when the originals are available in non-digital form. But the damage is severe when the originals, as here, are rare and fragile and could never be viewed by most users in non-digital form. Sources of OA biomed articles in 2005 Mamiko Matsubayashi and six co-authors, Status of open access in the biomedical field in 2005, Journal of the Medical Library Association, January 2009.
Here's an unexpected finding not evident from the abstract:
PS: Also note that in first third of 2005, no form of the NIH policy had yet taken effect, and in the second two thirds only the low-compliance voluntary form was in effect. New services to implement the Harvard OA policies Harvard's page on its Open-Access Policies has added links to a waiver request form and a quick-submit service for the repository. Both require a Harvard ID for login. Spain's science ministry may join SCOAP3 Spain's Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci�n) has expressed interest in joining the CERN SCOAP3 project. South Africa's new tech-transfer law and its effects on OA Audra Mahlong and Siyabonga Africa, IP Bill locks down innovation, IT Web, January 15, 2009. Excerpt:
Comment. Tech transfer laws like this one do allow the patenting of otherwise patentable discoveries made by publicly-funded research, and to that extent they enclose more of the commons. We can debate their wisdom. But even if they expand enclosure and create a corrupting influence on universities, it's not clear that they impede OA to research itself. The Bayh-Dole Act in the US did not, for example, block the NIH policy, even though the law was 24 years old and well-entrenched by the time the NIH policy was first proposed. Looking at the other end of the stick, however, OA can advance the goals of tech transfer by making it easier for businesses to monitor new discoveries that might be ripe for investment and commercialization. That's why the European Commission tech-transfer report of April 2008 recommended OA for publicly-funded research.
OCLC to review policy on WorldCat records
OCLC Board of Trustees and Members Council to convene Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship, press release, January 13, 2009.
For more on the ARL review, see:
Michael Mandiberg, Howto Negotiate a Creative Commons License: Ten Steps, Michael Mandiberg, January 12, 2009. (Thanks to Creative Commons.)
Gavin Baker, How to negotiate a Creative Commons license in a work contract, A Journal of Insignificant Inquiry, January 14, 2009.
Updates to ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit
The ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit, which includes sections on OA-related topics such as digital repositories and journal economics, has been updated. From the January 13 press release:
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has released an updated version of its popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit in a new format and with updated content. The toolkit continues to provide context and background by summarizing key issues to offer quick, basic information on scholarly communication topics. It also links to examples of specific tools, including handouts, presentations and videos for libraries to adapt and use on their own campuses. ... OA edition of Bollier's Viral Spiral David Bollier's new book, Viral Spiral, now has a Web site and an OA, CC-licensed edition. See especially chapter 11, "Science as a Commons". See also our previous post on the book, or past posts on Bollier.
Grant Buckler, Science 2.0: New online tools may revolutionize research, CBC News, January 13, 2009. Discusses tagging, social networking, Nature Network, Nature Precedings, blogs, Twitter, open notebooks, and preprints. (Thanks to Bora Zivkovic.)
German paleontology journal converts to OA The Stuttgarter Beitr�ge f�r Naturkunde Serie B converted to OA and changed its name to Palaeodiversity in late 2008. (Thanks to Bill Parker.) The backfile to 1999 is OA and older issues will soon be OA as well.
Hindawi offers publications in ePUB format
Hindawi Adds Support for the ePUB Digital Format, press release, January 12, 2009.
Head & Neck Oncology is a new peer-reviewed OA journal published by BioMed Central. The journal is the official publication of the Head & Neck Optical Diagnostics Society. See the January 12 announcement. The article-processing charge is �850 (�960, US$1290), subject to discount or waiver. Authors retain copyright, and articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
OA Working Group proposes an OA mandate to the Obama transition team The US Open Access Working Group has posted an OA proposal to the Obama transition team's Citizen's Briefing Book. Excerpt:
Comment. Like Obama CTO, which also has an OA proposal, the Citizen's Briefing Book allows you to vote for the posted proposals and add your own comments. Unlike Obama CTO, Citizen's Briefing Book lets you vote for all the proposals you like, not just your highest priorities. Log in, vote for the OA proposal, browse around and check out the other good ideas, and spread the word. Labels: Hot Ton Zijlstra, Open Government Data, Exciting New Project, Interdependent Thoughts, January 13, 2009. Excerpt:
Notes from Knowledge Governance conference Gavin Baker is live-blogging (1, 2, 3) the TACD's Patents, Copyrights and Knowledge Governance conference (Washington DC, January 12-13, 2009). Update (1/13/09). Gavin has posted a TOC of his 9 blog posts on the conference. Stevan Harnad's response to the STM briefing document Stevan Harnad, STM Publisher Briefing on Institution Repository Deposit Mandates, Open Access Archivangelism, January 13, 2009. The square brackets in this excerpt are Stevan's, not mine.
Comment. I support all of Stevan's responses. I also support his request to Michael Mabe to allow us to post quotations from the STM members-only briefing. If Mabe agrees, then I'll blog the briefing (again) and include some excerpts from the text.
AuthorMapper adds filter for OA articles
AuthorMapper is a site by Springer which searches journal articles and plots the location of authors on a map. It recently added an option to filter for only OA articles. (Thanks to Richard Akerman.)
Christian Zimmermann, Institutional repositories and RePEc, The RePEc Blog, January 10, 2009.
U of Fribourg signs the Berlin Declaration The Swiss University of Fribourg has signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge. (Thanks to Anja Lengenfelder.) Making digital goods free for users, while making a profit Caroline Bayley, Buy none, get one free, BBC News, January 8, 2009. (Thanks to Matt Cockerill.) Excerpt:
Comments
Update. Here's a working link to the podcast interview. (Thanks to Matt Cockerill.) Citations of OA journals in three scientific fields Tove Faber Frandsen, The integration of open access journals in the scholarly communication system: Three science fields, Information Processing & Management, January 2009.
Only this abstract is free online at the journal site, but also see the self-archived preprint. Appeal of OA journals about the same in the North and the South Tove Faber Frandsen, Attracted to open access journals: a bibliometric author analysis in the field of biology, Journal of Documentation, January 2009. (The DOI-based URL doesn't work for me at the moment.)
Only this abstract is free online from the journal site, but also see the self-archived preprint. Update (1/14/09). See Phil Davis' comments on Frandsen's article and the comments of Stevan Harnad and Leslie Chan on Davis' comments. From Davis:
From Chan:
Update (1/15/09). Also see Tove Faber Frandsen's comment on Davis' post. Excerpt:
Restoring public access to presidential papers In his first year of office, George Bush issued an executive order allowing former presidents to block the public release of their papers. See our past posts on that order and the opposition it generated. The first act passed by the House of Representatives in the first post-Bush session of Congress is the repeal of Bush's executive order. (Thanks to FGI.) If the Senate can pass its own version, Obama has promised the sign the bill. PS: It's real. Change is coming.
The students in Basic Biotechnology at Michigan State University publish their papers in an OA course journal. In fact, Open Journal Systems is used for the entire course site, including syllabus, links to readings, etc. The course received a university award for its use of OJS. (Thanks to the Public Knowledge Project.) See also our past posts on OA class journals at San Jose State University and the University of British Columbia. A reader's perspective on improving OJS
Gavin Baker, How to improve OJS: a reader�s perspective, A Journal of Insignificant Inquiry, December 31, 2008.
OA metadata repository of Swedish academic publications
SwePub is a forthcoming OA harvester of "metadata for all Swedish scientific publications from the publication databases of all Higher Education institutions". One of the strategic aims is to "increase the share of Swedish scientific publications that is Open Access". (Thanks to Fabrizio Tinti.)
Investigating the usage of open archives
Fernanda Peset, et al., Indicadores de rendimiento para acciones de acceso abierto, presented at La proyecci�n de los repositorios institucionales (December 10-12, 2008, Madrid); self-archived January 9, 2009. English abstract, lightly edited:
Study of the situation of the providers of information in order to evaluate the performance of the investments effected in initiatives [using] OAI-PMH. [S]tatistical information is presented on distribution of contents and the situation and growth of the projects from 2006, year in which we begin to compile the information, and compare[d] with reports of other places.
Tom Steinberg, Top 5 Internet Priorities for the Next Government (any next Government), mySociety blog, January 7, 2009. (Thanks to the Sunlight Foundation.)
More OA audio books from Open Culture
Open Culture added to its collection of free audio books on January 9.
Rick Kulkarni, Open-Access Medical Knowledge: Where Are We Currently and Where Should We Be Going?, Medscape Journal of Medicine, January 9, 2009. A video editorial. (Free registration required.)
... Most publishers of medical journals have stuck to a 400-year-old model of fee-based publication. Such fees are downright prohibitive to much of the world. Why is this tolerated by medicine and the general public? ... Dissertation on the OA impact advantage wins Emerald prize Doctoral thesis highly commended, News from DIS (the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University), January 9, 2009. (Thanks to Stevan Harnad.) Excerpt:
PS: Congratulations, Michael! Also see the published article based on the dissertation: Michael Norris, Charles Oppenheim, and Fytton Rowland, The citation advantage of open-access articles, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, July 9, 2008. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, neither the article nor the dissertation is yet OA. Update (1/13/09). Two articles based on this dissertation have now been self-archived:
STM briefing on university OA mandates STM has written a members-only briefing document on university OA mandates. Unless you're a member, it's all secret except for this blurb:
Fernanda Peset and Antonia Ferrer-Sapena, E-LIS : Central repository on Library and Information Science, presented at Online Information 2008 (London, December 2-4, 2008); self-archived January 8, 2008. Abstract:
E-LIS is an international open archive for the Library and Information Science fields, established in 2003. With over 8,600 documents as of November is an international open archive for the Library and Information Science fields, established in 2003. With over 8,600 documents as of November 2008, E-LIS is the world�s largest archive for LIS. Over half the documents in E-LIS are peer-reviewed. With support for 22 languages and a volunteer editorial team from over 40 countries, E-LIS is an outstanding example of global cooperation, which is reflected in one of the strengths of LIS. Over half the documents in E-LIS are peer-reviewed. With support for 22 languages and a volunteer editorial team from over 40 countries, E-LIS is an outstanding example of global cooperation, which is reflected in one of the strengths of E-LIS, the diversity of its content. OA and self-archiving in Quebec
Kumiko V�zina, Libre Acc�s � la recherche scientifique (Open Access) et d�p�ts institutionnels : contexte et enjeux, presentation to the Association pour l'avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation, section sant�, September 19, 2008; self-archived January 8, 2009. English abstract:
This presentation defines Open Access and gives an overview of the academic (teaching faculty) perspective on open access publishing and self-archiving and what it all means in the real-world university (library) environment. Some strategies are mentioned that could help the self-archiving movement.The presentation includes data from a survey of professors in life sciences at 6 Quebec universities:
Book on scientific publishing in French
Joachim Sch�pfel, ed., La publication scientifique: analyses et perspectives, published by Herm�s, November 2008. (Thanks to Odile Contat.) Only a book description and table of contents is OA, at least so far. See especially these chapters:
Rick Johnson, Free (or Fee) to All?, Library Journal, December 23, 2008.
See also Johnson's longer piece on better models for digitization. More on J. Biomed. Sci.'s conversion to OA
Michael M. C. Lai, Journal of Biomedical Science, marking a new epoch: moving to open access in 2009, Journal of Biomedical Science, January 8, 2009. An editorial. See also the post on the BioMed Central blog.
See also our previous post on the Journal of Biomedical Science. Vittorio Klostermann, Die gro�e Allianz gegen das Buch, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 8, 2009 (accessible only to subscribers). Klostermann, who founded the German publishing house, Vittorio Klostermann Verlag, objects to the new Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen (Alliance of German Science Organizations) and its plans for OA in Germany. His objections assume that the Allianz wants to abolish copyright, that a green OA mandate would undermine publisher revenues, that it would undermine author revenues (apparently thinking of books, not journal articles), and that it would undermine quality. Thanks to Klaus Graf for the alert and for his comments, which you can read in German or Google's English. PS: Also see our past posts on the Allianz and its commitment to OA. As far as I can tell, the Allianz still doesn't have a web site. The January issue of Physics World contains two letters to the editor under the title, Debating open access and arXiv. Neither letter is OA, at least so far, and PW doesn't even link to them from the TOC. But thanks to John Glen for blogging citations and summaries (1, 2):
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