Category: Open Access

"Plan S and Researchers’ Rights: (Re)Framing Academic Freedom"

Marc Couture and Richard Poynder have published "Plan S and Researchers’ Rights: (Re)Framing Academic Freedom " in Open and Shut?.

Here's an excerpt:

Given the apparent disenchantment with Plan S amongst at least some in the research community, and given that researchers find themselves increasingly subjected to ever more demanding OA policies like it (in which new duties, new restrictions and limitations, and new responsibilities are imposed on them), it is surely time to look again at what academic freedom does and does not mean, and what it should and should not mean in today’s context, and try to redefine and/or refine it for today’s historical situation; or at least to, as Marc Couture puts it in his guest post below, seek to "reframe" it?

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Using Static Site Generators for Scholarly Publications and Open Educational Resources"

Chris Diaz has published "Using Static Site Generators for Scholarly Publications and Open Educational Resources" in the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Static site generators build websites from plain-text files. Most are free to use and are available under an open source license [1]. They are often described in comparison to content management system (CMS) software, like WordPress or Drupal. CMS websites use database processes on a web server to dynamically create HTML on demand. Static site generators, however, perform all of the plain-text-to-HTML processing before the files are deployed online. This preprocessing workflow removes the need for high-touch system administration, database installations, server-side processing, and security patching, reducing the need for full-time developers and system administrators for digital publishing services. These advantages make static site hosting, maintenance, and preservation more affordable and sustainable for small teams.

Northwestern University Libraries began using static site generators for our digital publishing service in 2018. We initially licensed the Digital Commons platform from Bepress to support our open access publishing services, but the Elsevier acquisition made us question our reliance on proprietary software and motivated us to consider open source alternatives (Schonfeld 2018). At the same time, interest in open source software for library publishing was growing (Library Publishing Coalition 2018). This article reflects on our use of two open source static site generators for library publishing, including an overview and evaluation of the technologies while focusing on two popular use cases: scholarly publications and open educational resources.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Preparing Existing Metadata for Repository Batch Import: A Recipe for a Fickle Food"

William Roy and Chris Gray have published "Preparing Existing Metadata for Repository Batch Import: A Recipe for a Fickle Food" in the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2016, the University of Waterloo began offering a mediated copyright review and deposit service to support the growth of our institutional repository UWSpace. This resulted in the need to batch import large lists of published works into the institutional repository quickly and accurately. A range of methods have been proposed for harvesting publications metadata en masse, but many technological solutions can easily become detached from a workflow that is both reproducible for support staff and applicable to a range of situations. Many repositories offer the capacity for batch upload via CSV, so our method provides a template Python script that leverages the Habanero library for populating CSV files with existing metadata retrieved from the CrossRef API. In our case, we have combined this with useful metadata contained in a TSV file downloaded from Web of Science in order to enrich our metadata as well. The appeal of this 'low-maintenance' method is that it provides more robust options for gathering metadata semi-automatically, and only requires the user’s ability to access Web of Science and the Python program, while still remaining flexible enough for local customizations.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"BISG Releases Draft White Paper on Open Access Ebook Usage"

The Book Industry Study Group has released Building a Trusted Framework for Coordinating OA Monograph Usage Data.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This funded project is designed to identify the challenges in understanding the usage of OA ebooks, suggest some opportunities for resolving them, and create a framework for future action through community consultation. It focuses on the challenges of identifying and aggregating relevant information from different platforms, analyzing what has been gathered in ways that respect user privacy, and communicating relevant information about usage to stakeholders.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

The Potential of Global Identifiers to Support More Efficient Workflows for All Kinds of OA

Jisc has released The Potential of Global Identifiers to Support More Efficient Workflows for All Kinds of OA.

Here's an excerpt:

This document describes the potential of Persistent Identifier (PID) registries, in particularly for researchers and organisations, and how, if properly used, they can ease the administrative burden of any open access (OA) policy and improve workflows.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Do Authors Comply When Funders Enforce Open Access to Research?"

Vincent Larivière and Cassidy R. Sugimoto have published "Do Authors Comply When Funders Enforce Open Access to Research?" in Nature.

Here's an excerpt:

Of the more than 1.3 million papers we identified as subject to the selected funders' open-access mandates, we found that some two-thirds were indeed freely available to read.

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Jisc Open Access Briefing Paper: Considering the Implications of the Finch Report

Jisc has released Considering the Implications of the Finch Report.

Here's an excerpt:

Over six years on and in light of the 2017 monitoring report from the Universities UK Open Access Coordination Group [3] this discussion paper examines the impact and consequences of the UK approach, before suggesting possible interventions that might be considered further to evaluate their contribution to enhancing the transition to open access in the UK for all stakeholders.

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"Altruism or Self-Interest? Exploring the Motivations of Open Access Authors"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Altruism or Self-Interest? Exploring the Motivations of Open Access Authors" by Robert Heaton, Dylan Burns, and Becky Thoms.

Here's an excerpt:

More than 250 authors at Utah State University published an Open Access (OA) article in 2016. Analysis of survey results and publication data from Scopus suggests that the following factors led authors to choose OA venues: ability to pay publishing charges, disciplinary colleagues’ positive attitudes toward OA, and personal feelings such as altruism and desire to reach a wide audience. Tenure status was not an apparent factor.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap