Category: Open Access

"Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?"

College & Research Libraries has released a preprint of "Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?"

Here's an excerpt:

In academia, there is a growing acceptance of sharing the final electronic version of graduate work, such as a thesis or dissertation, in an online university repository. Though previous studies have shown that journal editors are willing to consider manuscripts derived from electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), faculty advisors and graduate students continue to raise concerns that online discoverability of ETDs negatively impact future opportunities to publish those findings. The current study investigated science journal policies on open access ETDs and found that more than half of the science journals contacted (51.4%) reported that manuscripts derived from openly accessible ETDs are welcome for submission and an additional 29.1% would accept revised ETDs under certain conditions.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Public Access to Public Science Act

The Public Access to Public Science Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) today introduced the Public Access to Public Science (PAPS) Act. This legislation would ensure public access to published materials concerning scientific research and development activities funded by federal science agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Weather Service (NWS). An embargo period is included to help balance publishers' needs with public access goals. PAPS builds on efforts by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Read more about it at the Harvard Open Access Project's "Notes on the Public Access to Public Science Act."

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"2013 Open Repositories Conference Highlights: Repository Island in Sea of Research Data"

Carol Minton Morris has published "2013 Open Repositories Conference Highlights: Repository Island in Sea of Research Data" in the latest issue of D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

The Eighth International Conference on Open Repositories 2013 was held July 8-12, 2013 on Prince Edward Island, Canada. The annual conference offers attendees an opportunity to learn about new ways to access information, innovative repository tools, and emerging community initiatives. More than 300 attendees came to OR2013 to meet with colleagues, keep up with fast-paced development goals, and hear expert speakers who are attuned to current repository issues.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Open Access and Scholarly Books: Workshop Report, 19 June 2013"

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society has released the "Open Access and Scholarly Books: Workshop Report, 19 June 2013."

Here's an excerpt:

The workshop brought together a group of 21 invited publishers, librarians, academics and Open Access innovators to discuss the challenge of making scholarly books Open Access. This report captures discussions that took place on the day. . . .

The day was divided into six sessions:

  1. Open Access Mandates and Implications for Books;
  2. Emerging Business Models for OA Books;
  3. The Impact of OA on the Monograph Ecosystem;
  4. Scholarly Publishing and Collective Action;
  5. Metadata and Metrics to Support OA Monographs;
  6. Roundup and Routes Forward.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Green OA Needed in UK: Open Access: Fifth Report of Session 2013-14

The House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has released Open Access: Fifth Report of Session 2013-14.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Government's commitment to increasing access to published research findings, and its desire to achieve full open access, are welcome, says the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee in a Report published today. However, whilst Gold open access is a desirable ultimate goal, focusing on it during the transition to a fully open access world is a mistake, says the Report.

The Report calls on the Government and RCUK to reconsider their preference for Gold open access during the five year transition period, and give due regard to the evidence of the vital role that Green open access and repositories have to play as the UK moves towards full open access.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"The Diamond Model of Open Access Publishing: Why Policy Makers, Scholars, Universities, Libraries, Labour Unions and the Publishing World Need to Take Non-Commercial, Non-Profit Open Access Serious"

Christian Fuchs and Marisol Sandoval have published "The Diamond Model of Open Access Publishing: Why Policy Makers, Scholars, Universities, Libraries, Labour Unions and the Publishing World Need to Take Non-Commercial, Non-Profit Open Access Serious" in tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique: Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society.

Here's an excerpt:

In the Diamond Open Access Model, not-for-profit, non-commercial organizations, associations or networks publish material that is made available online in digital format, is free of charge for readers and authors and does not allow commercial and for-profit re-use.

The fact that Diamond Open Access (DOA) has a digital format does not hinder that it is also made available in the form of printed publications in addition. We consider it as part of the model that publishers can charge for the actual printing costs without making monetary profits, but provide the digital version without charges. Publication "free of charge" means that neither authors nor individual readers nor institutions such as libraries have to pay for obtaining access to the literature published under the Diamond Open Access Model. Also authors or their institutions do not have to pay publication fees, article processing charges or other fees for getting articles published.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Draft Policy on Open Access for Data and Information

The EU e-infrastructure coordination pro-iBiosphere project has released the Draft Policy on Open Access for Data and Information.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The document addresses legal issues that hamper an integrative system for managing biodiversity knowledge in Europe. It describes the importance for scientists to have access to documents and data in order to synthesize disparate information and to facilitate data mining (or similar research techniques). It explores some aspects of copyright and database protection that influence access to and re-use of biodiversity data and information and refers to exceptions and limitations of copyright or database protection provided for within the relevant EU Directives.

The scientists also suggest that publicly funded institutions should refrain from claiming intellectual property rights for biodiversity data and information published or made accessible by them. Re-use of biodiversity data and information for research purposes should be allowed without any form of authorization. The only claims that publicly funded institutions should make are to ensure users fully acknowledge the sources of information that they rely on.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"The Inevitability of Open Access: Update One"

David W. Lewis has self-archived "The Inevitability of Open Access: Update One" in IUPUIScholarWorks.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper updates the author's 2012 article, "The Inevitability of Open Access" with recently published data. As a result it is possible to predict that Gold OA could account for 50 percent of the scholarly journal articles sometime between 2018 and 2020, and 90 percent of articles as soon as 2021 and more conservatively by 2024.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

AAU, ARL, and APLU Establish SHARE Steering Group

AAU, ARL, and APLU have established the SHARE Steering Group.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today announced the formation of a joint steering group to advance a proposed network of digital repositories at universities, libraries, and other research institutions across the US that will provide long-term public access to federally funded research articles and data.

The steering group will oversee a feasibility study, guide policy, and explore governance structures necessary for prototyping and implementing the network. This repository network, the Shared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE), is being developed as one response to a White House directive instructing federal funding agencies to make the results of research they fund available to the public.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Mining for Gold: Identifying the Librarians’ Toolkit for Managing Hybrid Open Access"

Jill Emery has published "Mining for Gold: Identifying the Librarians' Toolkit for Managing Hybrid Open Access" in the latest issue of Insights: the UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2012, the author and colleagues surveyed eight publishers that had been involved with the Publishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER) project to learn about the state of hybrid journal publishing. At the same time, one of the key questions asked to a panel of librarians at the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers May 2012 Meeting was what role librarians would play if scholarly publishing shortly went open access (OA) across the board? From the survey of the market, and the rapid OA developments in the UK and EU that include hybrid OA, a picture has begun to emerge of what roles librarians can play with regard to supporting hybrid OA publishing at their institutions. This article focuses on developing new partnerships within a given institution, looks at new budgetary models and the tracking of local scholarship creation. Current pertinent standards are highlighted.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Open Science: One Term, Five Schools of Thought"

Benedikt Fecher and Sascha Friesike have self-archived "Open Science: One Term, Five Schools of Thought" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Open Science is an umbrella term that encompasses a multitude of assumptions about the future of knowledge creation and dissemination. Based on a literature review, this paper aims at structuring the overall discourse by proposing five Open Science schools of thought: the infrastructure school (which is concerned with the technological architecture), the public school (which is concerned with the accessibility of knowledge creation), the measurement school (which is concerned with alternative impact measurement), the democratic school (which is concerned with access to knowledge) and the pragmatic school (which is concerned with collaborative research).

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"New Frontiers in Open Access for Collection Development: Perspectives from Canadian Research Libraries"

IFLA has released "New Frontiers in Open Access for Collection Development: Perspectives from Canadian Research Libraries" by K. Jane Burpee and Leila Fernandez.

Here's an excerpt:

As the push for open access (OA) burgeons around the globe, it is important to examine OA as it relates to collection development practices. Canada has its own particular set of characteristics and approaches to service delivery based on its history and context. Like our global colleagues, opportunities for collection development in Canada include the support of OA journals, repositories, monographs and electronic theses. The strengthening of OA in Canada is tied closely with other issues. Political and educational realities as well as geographic spread are affecting the way the movement is strengthening and impacting collection development practices. In this context, we share the results of a study examining the scholarly communication landscape in Canadian research libraries. The results of interviews with librarians, who are leaders in scholarly communication activities at their own institutions, showcase the prominent role OA plays in enhancing collections at Canadian institutions. Collaboration and the role of cooperative collection development are covered. The paper concludes with recommendations for strengthening access to open scholarship in libraries regardless of their geographic location.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Science-Metrix Releases Three Reports on Open Access

Science-Metrix has released three reports on open access: Proportion of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Papers at the European and World Levels—2004-2011, Open Data Access Policies and Strategies in the European Research Area and Beyond, and Open Access Strategies in the European Research Area.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The first report measures the availability of scholarly publications in 22 fields of knowledge across the European Research Area, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the United States, between 2004 and 2011. . . .

The second report, focusing on open access policies, showed a growing trend in the adoption of such policies by governments and other funding bodies. . . .

The third report found that open access to scientific data is less developed and more difficult to implement than open access to scholarly publications, both in terms of policies and infrastructure.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"A Framework for Systematic Analysis of Open Access Journals and its Application in Software Engineering and Information Systems"

Daniel Graziotin, Xiaofeng Wang, and Pekka Abrahamsson have self-archived "A Framework for Systematic Analysis of Open Access Journals and its Application in Software Engineering and Information Systems" in arXiv.org.

Here's an excerpt:

This study empirically demonstrated that high publication charges are not sufficiently justified by the publishers, which often lack transparency and may prevent authors from adopting Open Access. It showed that there are no features provided by journals with publication fees, which are not offered by those not requiring charges to authors. The article warned the authors to investigate which agreements have been signed by the journal publisher in order to ensure visibility to accepted papers. It also raised important concerns like that the articles of three fourths of Open Access journals in Software Engineering and Information Systems may be in danger of disappearing if the journals lose their content. Last but not least, this study showed that Open Access journals and publishers in the fields of Software Engineering and Information Systems have a significant margin of improvement regarding the perceived trustworthiness.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

e-InfraNet: ‘Open’ as the Default Modus Operandi for Research and Higher Education

The the e-InfraNet project has released e-InfraNet: 'Open' as the Default Modus Operandi for Research and Higher Education.

Here's an excerpt:

The basis for the policy framework is an overview of the current 'Open' landscape outlining contexts, drivers, achievements and effects of the various 'opens', as well as a number of common issues. Because of this commonality, coordinating the vision and approach can benefit all 'opens' individually, and contribute to the development of 'Open' as the default modus operandi for the research and higher education sectors. A pragmatic approach to the implementation of the vision will ensure the necessary flexibility to adjust for the diversity in the various 'opens' themselves and in their geographic and disciplinary contexts.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative"

Dorothea Salo has published "How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative" in the latest issue of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

Scholarly communication initiatives such as institutional repositories (IRs), library-sponsored publishing initiatives, open-access author-fee funds, copyright training and consulting, faculty-publication registries, and open-access publisher memberships must therefore be rapidly and effectively squelched, lest the system change in a fashion that disintermediates the existing pattern of library work. If these initiatives flourish, libraries will find themselves in the shoes of abbot Johannes Trithemius, whose De laude scriptorum (1494) presciently railed against the damage that Gutenberg's printing press would do to monasteries' lucrative scriptoria. . . .

Fortunately, scholarly communication initiatives are straightforward to scuttle, even when foisted upon an otherwise-responsible library by the provost's office or the faculty senate. Given the natural hierarchy of most reputable academic libraries. . ., it is of course easiest to put a stop to these misguided efforts from a leadership position, but in truth, any academic librarian can stop them in their tracks. Tried and true, proven-effective techniques follow.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Laying the Groundwork for Newspaper Preservation through Collaboration and Communication: The Texas Digital Newspaper Program"

Ana Krahmer and Mark Phillips have self-archived "Laying the Groundwork for Newspaper Preservation through Collaboration and Communication: The Texas Digital Newspaper Program" in the UNT Digital Library.

Here's an excerpt:

University of North Texas Libraries established the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) to digitize any Texas newspaper title, of any date, and to digitally preserve and make them available via The Portal to Texas History. Through site visits to multiple Texas libraries and personal interviews with librarians, genealogists, educators, students, and historians, UNT Libraries prioritized newspaper digitization within the content scope for The Portal to Texas History and determined processes for acquiring and ingesting multiple formats of newspapers, including from physical papers, microfilm, and born-digital PDF print masters. . . .

This presentation will elaborate on the financial, communicational, and technological processes involved in building the Texas Digital Newspaper Program. UNT Libraries digitally preserves and makes freely available, via The Portal to Texas History, over 1 million pages of Texas newspapers, spanning from 1829 to the present. The Texas Digital Newspaper Program is a case study in digital preservation and open access to digitized newspapers and is utilized by multiple communities of users, including genealogists, academic and lay historians, and K-12 and university researchers.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"If We Share Data, Will Anyone Use Them? Data Sharing and Reuse in the Long Tail of Science and Technology"

Jillian C. Wallis, Elizabeth Rolando, and Christine L. Borgman have published "If We Share Data, Will Anyone Use Them? Data Sharing and Reuse in the Long Tail of Science and Technology" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

Research on practices to share and reuse data will inform the design of infrastructure to support data collection, management, and discovery in the long tail of science and technology. These are research domains in which data tend to be local in character, minimally structured, and minimally documented. We report on a ten-year study of the Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. We found that CENS researchers are willing to share their data, but few are asked to do so, and in only a few domain areas do their funders or journals require them to deposit data. Few repositories exist to accept data in CENS research areas.. Data sharing tends to occur only through interpersonal exchanges. CENS researchers obtain data from repositories, and occasionally from registries and individuals, to provide context, calibration, or other forms of background for their studies. Neither CENS researchers nor those who request access to CENS data appear to use external data for primary research questions or for replication of studies. CENS researchers are willing to share data if they receive credit and retain first rights to publish their results. Practices of releasing, sharing, and reusing of data in CENS reaffirm the gift culture of scholarship, in which goods are bartered between trusted colleagues rather than treated as commodities.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Open Access and the Changing Landscape of Research Impact Indicators: New Roles for Repositories"

Isabel Bernal has published "Open Access and the Changing Landscape of Research Impact Indicators: New Roles for Repositories" in Publications.

Here's an excerpt:

The debate about the need to revise metrics that evaluate research excellence has been ongoing for years, and a number of studies have identified important issues that have yet to be addressed. Internet and other technological developments have enabled the collection of richer data and new approaches to research assessment exercises. Open access strongly advocates for maximizing research impact by enhancing seamless accessibility. In addition, new tools and strategies have been used by open access journals and repositories to showcase how science can benefit from free online dissemination. Latest players in the debate include initiatives based on alt-metrics, which enrich the landscape with promising indicators. To start with, the article gives a brief overview of the debate and the role of open access in advancing a new frame to assess science. Next, the work focuses on the strategy that the Spanish National Research Council's repository DIGITAL.CSIC is implementing to collect a rich set of statistics and other metrics that are useful for repository administrators, researchers and the institution alike. A preliminary analysis of data hints at correlations between free dissemination of research through DIGITAL.CSIC and enhanced impact, reusability and sharing of CSIC science on the web.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Hita-Hita: Open Access and Institutional Repositories in Japan Ten Years On"

Ikuko Tsuchide et al. have published "Hita-Hita: Open Access and Institutional Repositories in Japan Ten Years On" in the latest issue of Ariadne.

Here's an excerpt:

This article introduces several ideas and projects that have enhanced the penetration of the OA movement and development of institutional repositories in Japan. Moreover, it also outlines the activities of Digital Repository Federation (DRF)[6], a repository managers' community made up of 145 universities and research institutions that has supported such ideas. The term 'hita-hita' means to be tenacious, persevering and to work step by step without giving up. We adopt the term as the title of this article as we believe 'hita-hita' accurately expresses the character of our continued activity in this area.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Presentations from Open Repositories 2013

Presentations from Open Repositories 2013 are now available.

Here's a brief selection of talks:

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Helping to Open Up: Improving Knowledge, Capability and Confidence in Making Research Data More Open

The Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition has released Helping to Open Up: Improving Knowledge, Capability and Confidence in Making Research Data More Open.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The report describes a framework for how to address this challenge when designing training and support for opening data, within the broader questions of RDM. Recommendations are set out, relating to:

– putting opening data at the heart of policy

– putting opening data at the heart of training

– deepening and broadening the training

– identifying and disseminating best practice in opening data

– developing institutional and community support

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Correlation between Article Download and Citation Figures for Highly Accessed Articles from Five Open Access Oncology Journals"

Carsten Nieder, Astrid Dalhaug, and Gro Aandahl have published "Correlation between Article Download and Citation Figures for Highly Accessed Articles from Five Open Access Oncology Journals" in SpringerPlus.

Here's an excerpt:

Different approaches can be chosen to quantify the impact and merits of scientific oncology publications. These include source of publication (including journal reputation and impact factor), whether or not articles are cited by others, and access/download figures. When relying on citation counts, one needs to obtain access to citation databases and has to consider that results differ from one database to another. Accumulation of citations takes time and their dynamics might differ from journal to journal and topic to topic. Therefore, we wanted to evaluate the correlation between citation and download figures, hypothesising that articles with fewer downloads also accumulate fewer citations. Typically, publishers provide download figures together with the article. We extracted and analysed the 50 most viewed articles from 5 different open access oncology journals. For each of the 5 journals and also all journals combined, correlation between number of accesses and citations was limited (r=0.01-0.30). Considerable variations were also observed when analyses were restricted to specific article types such as reviews only (r=0.21) or case reports only (r=0.53). Even if year of publication was taken into account, high correlation coefficients were the exception from the rule. In conclusion, downloads are not a universal surrogate for citation figures.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Creative Commons: Challenges and Solutions for Researchers; A Publisher’s Perspective of Copyright in an Open Access Environment"

Nicola Gulley has published "Creative Commons: Challenges and Solutions for Researchers; A Publisher's Perspective of Copyright in an Open Access Environment" in the latest issue of Insights: The UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Copyright in the digital environment is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Copyright exists to protect the rights of an owner of an original piece of work by imposing restrictions on re-use but it does not always fit well with how we use and share information in the digital sphere.

The growth of open access (OA) publishing has also added to the challenge as the right to reuse as well as read content has been emphasized.

Creative Commons (CC) licences were introduced to try and bridge the gaps between the barriers imposed by traditional copyright and the realities of the digital environment but, as they are general licences, it is not always clear how they apply to specific situations.

This article addresses some of the key questions around how the various licences can be applied in academic publishing, what some of the consequences are, and how they affect different research areas.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Innovative Approaches to Publishing Open Access Monographs: It’s Not Business as Usual"

the latest issue of Jisc Inform includes "Innovative Approaches to Publishing Open Access Monographs It's Not Business as Usual."

Here's an excerpt:

If open access policies start to include monographs (the Wellcome Trust in May 2013 expanded its open access policy to include funding for authors of monographs and book chapters), what business model will support a vibrant HSS research environment and the wide dissemination of knowledge, and at the same time be affordable and sustainable for all the parties involved, especially those without grant funding?

There is little evidence on different open access models and so there is currently a period of experimentation. Let's look at the business models currently being explored.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap