Category: Open Access

ACRL Makes Entire College & Research Libraries Archive Freely Available

ACRL has made the entire College & Research Libraries archive freely available.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

"Digitizing the archives of the premier research journal for academic librarianship provides a tremendous new asset for our profession," said ACRL President Steven J. Bell of Temple University. "Creating and sharing this rich resource demonstrates ACRL's ongoing commitment to promote and deliver on the promise of open access. It is a treasure trove of content where the academic librarians of today and tomorrow will delve into our history, understand how we evolved and make new discoveries that could stimulate groundbreaking research and innovation of real benefit to academic librarianship."

C&RL archival contents from 1939 through 1996 were digitized through the generous volunteer efforts of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. The library's Digital Content Creation department performed scanning and metadata creation for the approximately 340 back file issues of the journal in 2011 and 2012. The digitized files were added to the journal's online presence with the financial assistance of the ACRL Friends Fund.

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"Keep the Change: Clusters of Faculty Opinion on Open Access"

ACRL has released "Keep the Change: Clusters of Faculty Opinion on Open Access" as part of the ACRL 2013 Proceedings.

Here's an excerpt:

In this Q study, factor analysis revealed three distinct factors that outlined clusters of faculty opinions about open access. The authors described these factors as "Evangelists," "Pragmatists," and"Traditionalists." Each of these factors represents a group of faculty on Miami University's Oxford campus who hold specific attitudes and opinions regarding open access. Implications for future library initiatives implementing open access programs, services, and policies are discussed, as are directions for additional research.

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"Recent Developments in Open Access"

Arthur Sale has self-archived "Recent Developments in Open Access" in UTAS ePrints.

Here's an excerpt:

Open Access to the world's research literature has been an obvious development since the emergence of the Internet. To everyone, it appears clear that the costs of disseminating research could drop dramatically. Yet, progress in achieving it is strangely slow. This paper explores recent developments in open access, including:

  • The recent Australian NH&MRC and ARC mandates for open access deposit in university repositories, and how universities are responding to them
  • The UK&'s Finch Report, and Lord Krebs&' Committee Report
  • Recent USA and German developments
  • Gradual growth in open access journals, and the challenge for universities and their libraries of transferring reader-side fees (subscriptions) to author-side fees (publication charges)
  • The emergence of submission fees so that highly selective journals need not transfer all the costs of rejections onto successful articles
  • Fake conferences and journals which exist only to extract attendance or publication fees
  • Newer publishing models
  • The recent emergence of a third route to open access based on social networking.

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Sustainability of Open Access Services—Report Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources

SPARC has released Sustainability of Open Access Services—Report Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources.

Here's an excerpt:

This report is the third in a series which examines issues relating to the economic sustainability of critical infrastructure services that support the operation and growth of open-access dissemination of scholarly and scientific research. This report is intended to guide funders and project planners in constructing and coordinating collective funding models capable of supporting open-access infrastructure resources. The report:

  • reviews the fundamentals of robust sustainability modeling (Section 2);
  • outlines the economic and institutional issues that confront those seeking to sustain free infrastructure services and discusses the implications of free models for an initiative's ability to provide an optimal level of service (Section 3); and
  • identifies strategies for overcoming institutional free ridership in the design of funding models and describes practical mechanisms for coordinating the collective provision of infrastructure services (Section 4).

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"The Determinants of Open Access Publishing: Survey Evidence from Germany"

Thomas Eger, Marc Scheufen, and Daniel Meierrieks have self-archived "The Determinants of Open Access Publishing: Survey Evidence from Germany" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

We discuss the results of a survey conducted in fall 2012 and covering 2,151 researchers in Germany. We show that there are significant differences between the scientific disciplines with respect to researcher's awareness of and experience with both open access (OA) journals and self-archiving. Our results reveal that the relevance of OA within a discipline may explain why researchers from particular disciplines do (not) publish OA. Besides, several aspects like copyright law, age, profession or the inherent reward system of a discipline play a role. As a consequence, the paper emphasizes that a "one-size-fits-all" approach as promoted by most recent policy approaches is little promising for providing an effective framework for shaping the future of scholarly publishing.

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Open Monograph Press, Release 1.0

The Public Knowledge Project has released the Open Monograph Press, Release 1.0.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

OMP is designed to assist university presses, learned societies, and scholar-publishers interested in publishing scholarly books in print-on-demand and multiple electronic formats, whether on an open access or purchase basis. OMP is intended to:

  • Handle edited volumes, with different authors for each chapter;
  • Involve editors, authors, reviewers, designers, indexers, and others in book production;
  • See submission through multiple rounds of both internal and external reviews;
  • Utilize industry standard ONIX for bookseller metadata requirements (e.g., Amazon);
  • Create document libraries for submissions, recording contracts, permissions, etc.;
  • Handle thumbnail covers in Catalog, as well as Spotlight features; and
  • Enable Series Editors to see books through review to publication.

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"Researcher, Beware!"

Jan Erik Frantsvåg has published "Researcher, Beware!" in the latest issue of ScieCom info (note: PDFs are in English).

Here's an excerpt:

The Wellcome Trust has not only showed themselves willing to fund OA, they also demand something in return for their funding. Authors are not allowed to use articles that should have been OA, but aren't, in their list of publication when applying for new grants. If the Trust find papers in reports, that do not comply with the OA policy, funding will be withheld. Non-compliant papers will also result in funding renewals or new grants being held back. . . .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced chances to their procedures regarding OA compliance. If non-compliant papers are found in project reports, further payments will be withheld pending evidence of compliance or a satisfactory explanation. . . .

The European Union is rewriting their OA policy for Horizon 2010. In Framework Program 7 (FP7), a Special Clause 39, demanding Open Access, was attached to about 20 per cent of funds. In Horizon 2020 all funds will have an OA obligation attached. And while the OA obligation in FP7 had a "best effort" clause in it (enabling you to be let off the hook, if you could document that you had asked for, but been denied, permission to self-archive), Horizon 2020 leaves no escape. If you don't comply, you have not fulfilled your contract. This will lead to funds being withheld.

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University of Rhode Island Adopts Open Access Policy

The University of Rhode Island has adopted an open access policy.

This year, Amherst College, the College of Wooster, Connecticut College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Library Faculty, and Wellesley College have all adopted open access policies.

(See Peter Suber's Google+ announcements of these policies.)

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Entire Editorial Board of Journal of Library Administration Resigns

There have been several reports stating that the editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration has resigned. The Journal of Library Administration is published by Taylor & Francis, which publishes a number of library and information science journals.

Here's an excerpt from Brian Mathews's "So I'm Editing This Journal Issue and . . ." in which he quotes an e-mail from Damon Jaggars:

"The Board believes that the licensing terms in the Taylor & Francis author agreement are too restrictive and out-of-step with the expectations of authors in the LIS community."

"A large and growing number of current and potential authors to JLA have pushed back on the licensing terms included in the Taylor & Francis author agreement. Several authors have refused to publish with the journal under the current licensing terms."

"Authors find the author agreement unclear and too restrictive and have repeatedly requested some form of Creative Commons license in its place."

"After much discussion, the only alternative presented by Taylor & Francis tied a less restrictive license to a $2995 per article fee to be paid by the author. As you know, this is not a viable licensing option for authors from the LIS community who are generally not conducting research under large grants."

"Thus, the Board came to the conclusion that it is not possible to produce a quality journal under the current licensing terms offered by Taylor & Francis and chose to collectively resign."

The Editorial Board members are:

Damon Jaggars (Editor)
Kristin Antelman
Chris Bourg
Lisa German
Fred M. Heath
Paula T. Kaufman
Deanna B. Marcum
Sarah C. Michalak
James G. Neal
Ann J. Wolpert
Makoto Nakamoto
Stephen Town

Read more about it at "Editorial Board Resigns from T&F Journal to Protest Restrictive Licensing," "The Journal of Library Administration," and "My Short Stint on the JLA Editorial Board."

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Implementing an Open Data Policy: A Primer for Research Funders

SPARC has released Implementing an Open Data Policy: A Primer for Research Funders.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This primer addresses key issues that these organizations encounter when considering the adoption and implementation of an open data policy. The guide covers big-picture topics such as how to decide on the range of activities an open data policy should cover. It also delves into areas of very specific concern, such as options for where data can be deposited, and how privacy and other concerns can be managed.

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"A Case for the Public Domain"

Clark D. Asay has self-archived "A Case for the Public Domain" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Over the past several decades open license movements have proven highly successful in the software and content worlds. . . . This Article argues that this IP-based approach, while perhaps helpful in the beginning, is no longer necessary and in fact prevents the movements from reaching their full potential. The IP-based approach has this effect by causing significant transaction costs without offsetting benefits, resulting in a tragedy of the anti-commons. The IP-based approach also creates the risk of IP trolls in the future, especially in the copyright sphere. . . . The Article then examines the benefits of a public domain approach and argues that such an approach would reduce the wasteful transaction costs, limit the possibility of IP trolls, still satisfy the purposes of those that contribute materials under open licenses, and better align with the normative tenets of such movements. To conclude, the Article assesses the merits of a "Public Domain Act" that would help address obstacles that currently exist in dedicating materials to the public domain and posits some theoretical implications relating to innovation based on the experiences of the open license movements and the arguments of this Article.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | Digital Scholarship |

"SSRN and Law Journals—Rivals or Allies?"

Ian Ramsay has self-archived "SSRN and Law Journals—Rivals or Allies?" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

The author identifies and evaluates the respective merits of publication in law journals and publication on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN)—the largest open access repository for legal scholarship. This evaluation leads to the conclusion that at this stage of the evolution of law journals and SSRN, there are advantages in authors publishing both in journals and on SSRN. However, publication on SSRN can have particular advantages for authors in smaller countries.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

De Gruyter Adopts Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND License for Open Access Content

De Gruyter has adopted the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license for its open access content.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Effective immediately De Gruyter and Versita will be publishing all Open Access content under the uniform application of Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. This means that publications may be copied, disseminated, and otherwise made public by users under the following conditions:

  • The name of the author/copyright owner must be mentioned in the manner requested by the author/copyright owner.
  • The publication and its content may not be used in its Open Access format for commercial purposes.
  • The publication and its content may not be edited, modified, or otherwise changed. . . .

In 2012 De Gruyter and Versita published over 10,000 Open Access articles in some 300 journals. Since 2009 a large number of books and book chapters have also been published under the Open Access standard.

| A Look Back at 22 Years as an Open Access Publisher | Digital Scholarship |

Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Bill Introduced

The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research bill has been introduced in the House and the Senate.

Here's an excerpt from Peter Suber's analysis how the bill compares to the Federal Research Public Access Act :

Here's how FASTR differs from FRPAA:

  • FASTR contains a provision on coordinating agency policies (4.a 2): "To the extent practicable, Federal agencies required to develop a policy…shall follow common procedures for the collection and depositing of research papers." This will reduce the burden on universities that need to comply with procedures at all the covered agencies, and should have no detrimental effect on OA. Indeed, it should improve compliance with agency OA policies.
  • FASTR contains three provisions calling for libre OA or open licensing:
    • FASTR includes a new "finding" in its preamble (2.3): "the United States has a substantial interest in maximizing the impact and utility of the research it funds by enabling a wide range of reuses of the peer-reviewed literature that reports the results of such research, including by enabling computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies."
    • FASTR includes a formatting and licensing provision (4.b.5): the versions deposited in repositories and made OA shall be distributed "in formats and under terms that enable productive reuse, including computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies."
    • FASTR requires that the annual report from each covered agency include a statement from the agency on "whether the terms of use applicable to such research papers are effective in enabling productive reuse and computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies" (4.f.2.B.i) and the results of the agency's "examination of whether such research papers should include a royalty-free copyright license that is available to the public and that permits the reuse of those research papers, on the condition that attribution is given to the author or authors of the research and any others designated by the copyright owner" (4.f.2.B.ii).

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access has issued a call to action to support the bill.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography (paperback, PDF file, and XHTML website; over 1,100 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

Open Access: Presentations from the Academy of Social Sciences’ Implementing Finch Conference Published

The Academy of Social Sciences has released a Professional Briefings issue that contains the presentations from its two-day Implementing Finch conference.

Here's an excerpt:

Moving to the recommendations, Dame Janet wished to correct some misunderstandings. The main recommendation was for a mixed economy including both the 'author pays' and subscription models of publishing. The report did not recommend a rapid move to Gold open access ('author pays') and anticipated a mixed economy for the foreseeable future. However the report did recommend that the policy direction should be set towards Gold open access and envisaged the balance between the two models of publishing would shift over time.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography (paperback, PDF file, and XHTML website; over 1,100 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"Open Access, Library and Publisher Competition, and the Evolution of General Commerce"

Andrew Odlyzko has self-archived "Open Access, Library and Publisher Competition, and the Evolution of General Commerce."

Here's an excerpt:

Discussions of the economics of scholarly communication are usually devoted to Open Access, rising journal prices, publisher profits, and boycotts. That ignores what seems a much more important development in this market. Publishers, through the oft-reviled "Big Deal" packages, are providing much greater and more egalitarian access to the journal literature, an approximation to true Open Access. In the process they are also marginalizing libraries, and obtaining a greater share of the resources going into scholarly communication. This is enabling a continuation of publisher profits as well as of what for decades has been called "unsustainable journal price escalation." It is also inhibiting the spread of Open Access, and potentially leading to an oligopoly of publishers controlling distribution through large-scale licensing.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography (paperback, PDF file, and XHTML website; over 1,100 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"Open-Sourcing the Global Academy: Aaron Swartz’s Legacy"

Rebecca Gould has self-archived "Open-Sourcing the Global Academy: Aaron Swartz's Legacy" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This essay examines Swartz's Open Access vision, and traces the challenges he faced in carrying out his dream. Arguing that Open Access is the future of scholarship in the digital age, I outline concrete strategies for bringing Swartz's dream to fruition.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog | Digital Scholarship |

"Scholarly Communications and the Role of the Liberal Arts College Library"

Diane J. Graves has self-archived "Scholarly Communications and the Role of the Liberal Arts College Library" in Digital Commons @ Trinity.

Here's an excerpt:

One of the most puzzling aspects of the entire conversation around scholarly communication—the impact of existing models, the search for alternatives, the need for advocacy—is the assumption that it is the purview of Carnegie Research I institutions first and foremost, followed by those institutions with robust doctoral programs. The corollary is that small academic libraries—college libraries at liberal arts institutions, in particular—are not significant players in the conversation, nor should they be. Many in the academy, including those who work at such institutions, tend to think that the liberal arts college environment is too small to have a significant voice in the debate over alternatives to traditional models. . . .

Scenarios that look ahead to the next decade and beyond would be wise to look closely at the impact the small college library can have on the very lifeblood and purpose of libraries: the collection and dissemination of scholarly content.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography (paperback, PDF file, and XHTML website; over 1,100 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"Academic Administrator Influence on Institutional Commitment to Open Access of Scholarly Research"

Thomas L. Reinsfelder has self-archived his "Academic Administrator Influence on Institutional Commitment to Open Access of Scholarly Research" dissertation in Indiana University of Pennsylvania DSpace

Here's an excerpt:

This quantitative study investigated the interrelationships among faculty researchers, publishers, librarians, and academic administrators when dealing with the open access of scholarly research. This study sought to identify the nature of any relationship between the perceived attitudes and actions of academic administrators and an institution's commitment to open access as reported by library directors. A survey research design was used to collect data based on perceptions of library directors at four year colleges and universities in the United States. Results of this study show that as academic administrator attention to open access increases so do the open access activities of faculty and librarians. Information presented may benefit members in each stakeholder group by allowing them to better position their organizations for future success in a complex environment. This study may also benefit advocates of open access who wish to expand services and other initiatives that encourage the greater accessibility of scholarly work.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 (paperback and PDF file; over 600 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"Open Access Versus Traditional Journal Pricing: Using a Simple ‘Platform Market’ Model to Understand Which Will Win (and Which Should)"

Mark J. McCabe, Christopher M. Snyder, and Anna Fagin have self-archived "Open Access Versus Traditional Journal Pricing: Using a Simple 'Platform Market' Model to Understand Which Will Win (and Which Should)" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt :

Economists have built a theory to understand markets in which, rather than selling directly to buyers, suppliers sell through a platform, which controls prices on both sides. The theory has been applied to understand markets ranging from telephony, to credit cards, to media. In this paper, we apply the theory to the market for scholarly journals, with the journal functioning as the platform between submitting authors and subscribing readers. Our goal is to understand the conditions under which a journal would prefer open access to traditional pricing and under which open access would be better for the scholarly community. Our new model captures much of the richness of the existing economic literature on journal pricing, and indeed adds some fresh insights, yet is simple enough to be accessible to a broad audience.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography (XHTML version) | Digital Scholarship |

"Institutional Repositories: Exploration of Costs and Value"

Sean Burns, Amy Lana, and John M. Budd have published "Institutional Repositories: Exploration of Costs and Value" in the latest issue of D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional repositories and the value these institutional repositories offer to their communities. To address this, the authors report the findings of their 29 question survey of academic libraries with institutional repositories. . . . The highlights of our findings, based on median values, suggest that institutions that mediate submissions incur less expense than institutions that allow self-archiving, institutions that offer additional services incur greater annual operating costs than those who do not, and institutions that use open source applications have lower implementation costs but comparable annual operating costs with institutions that use proprietary solutions. Furthermore, changes in budgeting, from special initiative to absorption into the regular budget, suggest a trend in sustainable support for institutional repositories.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

"Cost-Effectiveness of Open Access Publications"

Jevin West, Theodore Bergstrom, and Carl T. Bergstrom have self-archived "Cost-Effectiveness of Open Access Publications" at eigenfactor.org.

Here's an excerpt:

Open access publishing has been proposed as one possible solution to the serials crisis—the rapidly growing subscription prices in scholarly journal publishing. However, open access publishing can present economic pitfalls as well, such as excessive publication charges. We discuss the decision that an author faces when choosing to submit to an open access journal. We develop an interactive tool to help authors compare among alternative open access venues and thereby get the most for their publication fees.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Organization of Scholarly Communication Services, SPEC Kit 332

ARL has released the Organization of Scholarly Communication Services, SPEC Kit 332.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Organization of Scholarly Communication Services, SPEC Kit 332, which explores how research institutions are currently organizing staff to support scholarly communication services, and whether their organizational structures have changed since 2007, when member libraries were surveyed about their scholarly communication education initiatives. This SPEC Kit covers who leads scholarly communication efforts inside and outside the library, the scholarly communication related services that are offered to researchers, and which staff support those services. The publication also looks at how the library measures the success of its scholarly communication services, including demonstrable outcomes of these services.

| Digital Scholarship's 2012 Publications | Digital Scholarship |

"Examining Attributes of Open Standard File Formats for Long-Term Preservation and Open Access"

Eun G. Park and Sam Oh have published "Examining Attributes of Open Standard File Formats for Long-Term Preservation and Open Access" in the latest issue of Information Technology and Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

This study examines the attributes that have been used to assess file formats in literature and compiles the most frequently used attributes of file formats in order to establish open standard file format selection criteria. A comprehensive review was undertaken to identify the current knowledge regarding file format selection criteria. The findings indicate that the most common criteria can be categorized into five major groups: functionality, metadata, openness, interoperability and independence. These attributes appear to be closely related. Additional attributes include presentation, authenticity, adoption, protection, preservation, reference and others.

| Digital Curation Resource Guide | Digital Scholarship |