Year: 2010

Simon Fraser University has signed the Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE). Simon Fraser University is the thirteenth institution to sign COPE.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Today Simon Fraser University joins 12 other leading post-secondary institutions as a signatory to the Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE). Open access makes scholarly and other content freely available online to all users, without barriers, such as subscriptions or pay-per-view/use costs. Signatories to this Compact agree to support new business models for the publication of open access journals. Specifically, the Compact commits each signatory to developing ways of underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.

Since February 2010, the SFU Library has operated an Open Access Fund. The Fund meets COPE requirements by covering many author-side fees for SFU researchers who publish in open access journals that charge such fees. The third such fund in Canada, SFU’s Open Access Fund has covered 22 articles to date. The SFU fund is part of a set of SFU-based programs that support open access. The Library hosts the SFU institutional repository where the digital scholarly output of the university is collected and maintained. The Library partners with the SFU-based Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing, along with Stanford University and the University of British Columbia to develop and maintain the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) suite of software – Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Conference Systems (OCS), Open Harvester Systems (OHS) and soon Open Monograph Press (OMP). The Library also hosts over 250 journals using OJS with many having adopted an open access publishing model.

Dr Mario Pinto, Vice President for Research, articulates the philosophy underlying SFU’s commitment as follows: “SFU is a recognized leader in the use of innovative technologies and initiatives that enhance and simplify access to scholarly knowledge. We were one of the first Canadian universities to embrace open access publishing. By making the results of research freely available, we stand to gain the maximum benefit from publicly-funded research investment by facilitating the transfer of knowledge and stimulating creative thought.” Simon Fraser University consistently ranks among the top research universities in Canada in terms of sponsored research income, publication rates and impact factors. In 2010, SFU placed fourth in Canada and 66 out of 6000 higher education institutes from across the globe in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.

SPARC has profiled four scientists involved in open access movement: Jonathan Eisen, Michael Eisen, Josh Buckholtz, and Neil Buckholtz.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In celebration of Open Access Week (October 18-24), SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is showcasing the stories of two exceptional families who have embraced Open Access as a value and have advanced their own work — though not always without reservations. The personal stories of brothers Jonathan and Michael Eisen (both evolutionary biologists), along with Neil Buckholtz and his son, Josh (neuroscientists), grappling with the pros and cons of Open Access are now profiled on the SPARC Web site.

As a teenager, Josh Buckholtz asked his father, Neil, endless questions about science. Neil is a neuroscientist at the NIH National Institute on Aging and Chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch. Josh, 33, is completing his Ph.D in neuroscience at Vanderbilt University.  Together they share a passion to unlock the mysteries of the brain, and are pioneers who advocate for Open Access in their area of research. Neil helped conceive the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), which has openly shared data — making every single Alzheimer’s-related research finding public immediately online. Josh is a review editor at Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, an online open-access journal published by the Frontiers Research Foundation.

Science has always been an integral part of the lives of the Eisen brothers.  Their parents and grandfather were all working scientists. As kids, Jonathan was fascinated with bugs and Michael was a math whiz who liked to program computers. Their career paths eventually converged, with both working as evolutionary biologists in California. Michael was the first of the pair of siblings to embrace Open Access, as the founder of the Public Library of Science (PLoS). He helped convince Jonathan, initially skeptical of open sharing of his scientific work, to join in his efforts to push for free access to research. Jonathan was on the first editorial board of PLoS Biology and has been an outspoken advocate of Open Access since 2003. Even their mother, Laura, now a professor who teaches chemistry and biochemistry at George Washington University, also promotes Open Access, rounding out the family affair.

"The compelling, personal stories of individual scientists who are pursuing Open Access to their works — and the works they need access to — are powerful examples of why adoption of Open Access is growing," says Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, which is the lead organizer of Open Access Week. "Scientists on the front lines of research are keenly aware of the limitations that access places on the ability of research to move forward. And, as Michael Eisen notes, it all starts with walking the walk; if you don’t  choose an open-access option yourself, how can you convince your family it's a good idea? How can you possibly convince anyone else to give it a try? For both the Eisen and the Buckholtz families, Open Access is a matter of values — and a moving family affair."

| Digital Scholarship |

Over 40 ARL libraries have offered special Open Access Week 2010 events.

There are links to these events at the DigitalKoans delicious open.access.week tag.

| Digital Scholarship |

Over 50 open access policies have been registered in ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repository Material Archiving Policies) so far in 2010.

Here's a selection of approved policies:

Institutional

• Australian National University (Australia)
• Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)
• Brunel University (UK)
• Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
• Concordia University (Canada)
• Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands)
• Ghent University (Belgium)
• INRA (France, effective 2011)
• Institut Francais de Recherche pour L'Exploitation de la Mer (France)
• Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
• Instituto Politecnico de Braganca (Portugal)
• Rollins College (US)
• Royal Holloway, University of London (UK)
• Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)
• Universidade Aberta (Portugal)
• University of Lincoln (UK)
• University of Porto (Portugal)
• University of Reading (UK)
• University of Strathclyde (UK)
• The University of Tromsø (Norway)
• University of Westminster (UK)
• V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine)

Departmental/School

• Birkbeck College, University of London (UK)
• Harvard Business School (US)
• IUPUI University Library (USA)
• Queen's University Library Faculty (Canada)
• University of Hong Kong Libraries (China)
• University of Puerto Rico School of Law (Puerto Rico)
• Wake Forest University: Z. Smith Reynolds Library (US)

Theses

• Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
• Brandeis University (US)
• Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy)
• Loughborough University (UK)
• Panteion Univeristy of Social and Political Sciences (Greece)
• Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati di Trieste (Italy)
• Università degli Studi dell'Insubria (Italy)
• Universita degli Studi di Parma (Italy)
• L'Università di Tor Vergata (Italy)
• University of Auckland (New Zealand)
• University of Bergamo (Italy)
• University of Bologna (Italy)
• Universita Cattolica (Italy)
• University of Ferrara (Italy)
• University of Naples (Italy)
• University of North Texas (US)
• University Roma Tre (Italy)
• University of Sassari (Italy)
• University of Strathclyde (UK)
• University of Tuscia (Italy)
• University of Trento (Italy)

• Funder

• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (Canada)
• Swedish Research Council Formas (Sweden)
• Telethon Italy (Italy)

| Digital Scholarship |

The Australian National University has adopted an open access policy. The policy is embodied in three documents: (1) "Guidelines: Depositing Scholarly Work to the ANU Research Repository," (2) "Policy: Code of Practice for Scholarly Publication and Dissemination at ANU," and (3) "Policy: Intellectual Property."

Here's an excerpt from the "Policy: Intellectual Property":

Section 6. Terms of Publication: Open Access

6.1 The object of this Section is to promote the availability of Scholarly Works Created within the University free or at a low cost to Members and the public in accordance with Open Access Principles, without causing unreasonable detriment to the creating Member.

6.2 A Member who Creates a Scholarly Work must, when it is accepted by a publisher for publication or otherwise the Member deems the work ready for publication, provide a copy of the Scholarly Work to the University.

6.3 Subject to Sub-section 6.4, copies of Scholarly Works received by the University under this Section may be made published by the University to Members or the public.

6.4 If the Member reasonably believes that the exercise by the University of rights under Sub-section 6.3 may:

a) impede the Member's ability to disseminate the Scholarly Work by publication through a third party or otherwise;

(b) result in unreasonable financial loss to the Member; or

(c) impede collaboration with co-authors outside the University,

the Member may, when providing the work to the University, indicate that the work may not be published by the University or it may not be published by the University for a specified time.

| Digital Scholarship |

Trinity College Dublin has adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In a move aimed at broadening access to its research and scholarship, Trinity College Dublin has adopted a policy to make its scholarly articles available to the public for free and open online access. The new policy confirms Trinity's commitment to disseminating its research outputs and scholarship as widely as possible. This move places Trinity at the forefront of academic institutions worldwide that are pioneering the move to Open Access.

Trinity's Dean of Research, Dr David Lloyd said: "Knowledge must be accessible widely if its benefits are to impact on society. Trinity is proud to make the work of our world class researchers and scholars available on open access. This policy means that the institutional supports will be in place to assist our researchers in making their work freely available.”

Under the new policy, faculty authors give TCD nonexclusive permission to disseminate their journal articles and other scholarly publications for open access through TARA, Trinity's Access to Research Archive. The policy covers all scholarly articles, peer reviewed conference papers, reports and TCD research theses. The deposit of books, book chapters and datasets associated with published research is strongly encouraged.

TCD's Open Access policy is the first such policy adopted by an Irish university and is the result of an ongoing partnership between TCD Library and its Faculty to capture the intellectual outputs of the University, facilitate access to them via the Web and maintain and preserve that access into the future. TCD's resolution is similar to those adopted by the universities of Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, but differs from those policies in that it does not require faculty members to retain copyright to their publications. Instead, it works within the boundaries of scholarly publishers' copyright policies (up to 95% of these publishers allow authors to make some version of their papers freely accessible).

The new policy was approved unanimously at Trinity's recent Research Committee meeting and will take immediate effect.

Open Access policies have been adopted by over 96 universities worldwide and 46 research funding councils. Major research funders such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust, the European Research Council and all UK research funding councils have mandated Open Access, as have almost all Irish funders (such as the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA)). Last year, Dublin Institute of Technology became the first Irish Higher Education Institution to adopt an Open Access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the policy:

To assist the University in providing Open Access to all scholarly papers published by its members of staff and research students, each staff member and research student will provide, immediately upon acceptance for publication, an electronic copy of the final peer-reviewed draft of each article at no charge to the appropriate representative of the Provost's Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office. This can be done either by depositing it directly in TARA via the Research Support System or by emailing it to the Library to be deposited in our open access institutional repository on the author's behalf. Metadata will be made publicly available immediately; open access to the full text paper will be available as soon as is practicable, and not later than six months after publication. Embargos will be applied as necessary.

In order to support our researchers to comply with funders' Open Access mandates and in keeping with College's Information Systems Policy Guidelines and its requirement to reduce duplication of the creation of the same data, when metadata and papers are deposited in TARA the Library will undertake to assist with the deposit and/or enable harvesting of scholarly publications to other repositories (eg PubMed Central) as required by funders such as NIH, Wellcome Trust, SFI (life sciences), and HRB. Compliance with this policy automatically confers compliance with the IRCSET, HEA, European Research Council and SFI mandates.

The policy will apply to all scholarly articles, peer reviewed conference papers, reports and TCD research theses written while the person is a member of staff or a research student except for any publications completed before the adoption of this policy. The deposit of books, book chapters and datasets associated with published research is strongly encouraged. The Library will undertake to develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that will render compliance with this policy as convenient for our researchers as possible.

| Digital Scholarship |