Category: Publishing

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 |

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 |

EFF and Public Knowlege’s Comments on Copyright Office’s Orphan Works Inquiry

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have released their comments on the Notice of Inquiry by the Copyright Office for comments regarding orphan works, Docket No. 2012-12.

Here's an excerpt:

A range of options, none of them exclusive, can alleviate the problems created by the prevalence of orphan works. Even in the absence of more systemic change that can stem the growing number of works whose copyright information disappears into obscurity, the application of fair use and legislative work on damages reduction (both for orphan works specifically and for good faith fair uses generally) can allow a variety of users to bring a variety of works to the public. Mass digitization projects promise to be a part of that process, and should be able to proceed in many cases under current law. However, more ambitious plans for broader, publicly available MDPs could be incentivized to serve the public interest with additional damages limitations, attended by public interest conditions. We

| Google Books Bibliography (XHTML website; over 320 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 |

Recommended Practices for Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials

NISO has released Recommended Practices for Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the National Federation for Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) have published a new Recommended Practice on Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials (NISO RP-15-2013). Supplemental materials are increasingly being added to journal articles, but until now there has been no recognized set of practices to guide in the selection, delivery, discovery, and preservation of these materials. To address this gap, NISO and NFAIS jointly sponsored an initiative to establish best practices that would provide guidance to publishers and authors for management of supplemental materials and would address related problems for librarians, abstracting and indexing services, and repository administrators. The Supplemental Materials project involved two teams working in tandem: one to address business practices and one to focus on technical issues. This new publication is the combined outcome of the two groups' work.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 ( paperback and PDF file; over 3,800 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"The Authors Guild v. Hathitrust: A Way Forward for Digital Access to Neglected Works in Libraries"

James Aaron has self-archived "The Authors Guild v. Hathitrust: A Way Forward for Digital Access to Neglected Works in Libraries" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This Comment begins by describing the HathiTrust Orphan Works Project and what it renames the neglected works problem. Next, it examines the legality of the project under current copyright law, focusing mainly on fair use under section 107, and concludes that it is unclear whether the project violates copyright law. Finally it analyzes whether this result fits the policy goals of copyright, and because it does not, proposes both legislative and judicial changes to copyright law to make it clear that in the proper circumstances, nonprofit, educational uses of neglected works do not violate copyright law.

| Google Books Bibliography (XHTML website; over 320 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 |

EBook Business Models: A Scorecard for Public Libraries

ALA's Digital Content and Libraries Working Group has released EBook Business Models: A Scorecard for Public Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

The Digital Content & Libraries Working Group (DCWG) began documenting and describing attributes of various licensing arrangements libraries may have with publishers in the August 2012 report Ebook Business Models for Public Libraries. Now we are pleased to share The Ebook Business Model Scorecard, which more fully examines the variables often seen in ebook license agreements or contracts. At the same time, the variables, when considered as a whole, can help libraries conceptualize licenses holistically instead of fixating on one aspect of a contract in isolation.

| Google Books Bibliography (XHTML website; over 320 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

"The State of Large-Publisher Bundles in 2012"

ARL has released a pre-publication version of "The State of Large-Publisher Bundles in 2012."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In this article, authors Karla Strieb and Julia Blixrud report on the results of a recent survey of journal licenses in ARL member libraries. The authors conclude that there are "ongoing strains in libraries' relationships with publishers and in their ability to maintain electronic journal bundles in difficult financial times." They found that journal collections have become smaller and more tailored, and that stronger licensing language is needed in the clauses that are most important to research libraries. The authors note that licenses need to allow libraries to: make new uses of the licensed content, share information with peers about licensing terms, and rest assured that licensed content will be available in the future.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | 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 |

"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 |

MedOANet Releases Open Access Tracker

MedOANet has released the Open Access Tracker.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

MedOANet (Mediterranean Open Access Network) is a two-year project funded under the Science in Society Programme of the EC 7th Framework Programme. The project enhances existing policies, strategies and structures for Open Access and contributes towards the implementation of new ones in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal. . . .

The Open Access Tracker brings together information on journals, repositories, institutional policies, funder's policies and publishers' self-archiving policies, representing Open Access activities in the six countries.

Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals Cover

| Digital Scholarship |

Amherst College Establishes Open Access Press

Amherst College has established an open access press, the Amherst College Press.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Conceived by Amherst College Librarian Bryn Geffert, Amherst College Press will be housed in the college's Frost Library and will solicit manuscripts from scholars who may be especially receptive to new publishing paradigms at a time when traditional academic presses are reducing the number of titles they publish. . . .

At the outset, Amherst College Press will publish solely in liberal arts disciplines such as political science, literary studies, history, economics and anthropology—areas for which Amherst is well known. The press will produce books in formats that will be suitable for most e-readers; print-on-demand may be available. The press will not focus on print production or distribution. . . .

Funding for the press will come from the Frost Library and from an endowed position for which the college is currently raising money. The college also expects that the content of the Amherst College-affiliated literary magazine The Common will be freely available online under the open-access model governing the press, while The Common will continue to use its own resources to produce the publication's print version.

Read more about it at "Frequently Asked Questions."

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

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

| Digital Scholarship |

"On the Impact of Gold Open Access Journals"

Christian Gumpenberger, María-Antonia Ovalle-Perandones, and Juan Gorraiz have self-archived "On the Impact of Gold Open Access Journals" in U: Scholar.

Here's an excerpt:

This study identified the current set of Gold Open Access journals featuring a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) by means of Ulrichsweb, Directory of Open Access Journals and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The results were analyzed regarding disciplines, countries, quartiles of the JIF distribution in JCR and publishers. Furthermore the temporal impact evolution was studied for a Top 50 titles list (according to JIF) by means of Journal Impact Factor, SJR and SNIP in the time interval 2000-2010. The identified top Gold Open Access journals proved to be well-established and their impact is generally increasing for all the analyzed indicators. The majority of JCR-indexed OA journals can be assigned to Life Sciences and Medicine. The success-rate for JCR inclusion differs from country to country and is often inversely proportional to the number of national OA journal titles.

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

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

| Digital Scholarship |

General Cost Analysis for Scholarly Communication in Germany: Results of the "Houghton Report" for Germany

Goethe University has released General Cost Analysis for Scholarly Communication in Germany: Results of the "Houghton Report" for Germany.

Here's an excerpt:

This analysis of the potential benefits of more open access to research findings suggests that different publishing models can make a material difference to the benefits realised, as well as the costs faced. It seems likely that more Open Access would have substantial net benefits in the longer term and, while net benefits may be lower during a transitional period, they are likely to be positive for both 'author-pays' Open Access publishing and the 'over-lay journals' alternatives ('Gold Open Access'), and for parallel subscription publishing and self-archiving ('Green Open Access'). The NLP returns substantial benefits and savings at a modest cost, returning one of the highest benefit/cost ratios available from unilateral national policies during a transitional period (second to that of 'Green Open Access' self-archiving). Whether 'Green Open Access' self-archiving in parallel with subscriptions is a sustainable model over the longer term is debateable, and what impact the NLP may have on the take up of Open Access alternatives is also an important consideration. So too is the potential for developments in Open Access or other scholarly publishing business models to significantly change the relative cost-benefit of the NLP over time.

Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals Cover

| Digital Scholarship |

Harvard School of Public Health Adopts Open Access Policy

The Harvard School of Public Health has adopted an open access policy. It is the eighth Harvard school to do so.

Here's an excerpt:

Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit, and to authorize others to do the same. The policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Dean or Dean's designate will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon express direction by a Faculty member.

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

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

| Digital Scholarship |

Georgia Institute of Technology Adopts Open Access Policy

The Georgia Institute of Technology has adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt:

Each Faculty member grants to Georgia Tech Research Corporation (hereinafter "GTRC") nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each Faculty member grants to GTRC a nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to exercise any and all copyrights in his or her scholarly articles published in any medium, provided the articles are not sold or licensed for a profit by GTRC or any GTRC-granted licensee.

This policy applies to all published scholarly articles that any person authors or co-authors while appointed as a member of the Faculty, except for any such articles authored or co-authored before the adoption of this policy, or subject to a conflicting agreement formed before the adoption of this policy, or conducted under a classified research agreement. Upon notification by the author, the Provost or Provost's designate will waive application of this license for a particular article. At author request, access will be delayed for up to one year.

To assist in distributing the scholarly articles, each Faculty member will make available an electronic copy of his or her final version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost's Office in appropriate formats (such as PDF) specified by the Provost’s Office, no later than the date of publication.

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

| Digital Scholarship |

"Who’s Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition"

The EFF has released "Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition."

Here's an excerpt:

As we've done since 2009, again we've taken some of the most popular e-book platforms and combed through their privacy policies for answers to common privacy questions that users deserve to know. In many cases, these answers were frustratingly vague and long-winded. In nearly all cases, reading e-books means giving up more privacy than browsing through a physical bookstore or library, or reading a paper book in your own home. Here, we've examined the policies of Google Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Sony, Overdrive, Indiebound, Internet Archive, and Adobe Content Server for answers to the following questions:

  • Can they keep track of searches for books?
  • Can they monitor what you're reading and how you're reading it after purchase and link that information back to you? Can they do that when the e-book is obtained elsewhere?
  • What compatibility does the device have with books not purchased from an associated eBook store?
  • Do they keep a record of book purchases? Can they track book purchases or acquisitions made from other sources?
  • With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form?
  • Do they have mechanisms for customers to access, correct, or delete the information?
  • Can they share information outside the company without the customer's consent?

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

Canadian Research Knowledge Network Will Cancel National License Agreement with American Chemical Society

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network will cancel a national license agreement for the American Chemical Society's Web Editions and Legacy Archives products.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Termination of the CRKN-ACS license will take effect at the end of 2013, at which time participating libraries may choose to contract directly with ACS or implement alternate arrangements. . . .

Under ACS's new pricing, costs for participant libraries will be determined solely by usage, using the average number of full-text downloads from the most recent three years, and with participating institutions organized into usage bands. Any growth in usage that would move a participating institution into a higher usage band would result in a prohibitive price increase that could double or triple the cost of the ACS content. This pricing regime represents a huge financial risk for those libraries that are most committed to promoting ACS resources, and will penalize those who are most successful in integrating ACS content into new web- and mobile-based discovery and access systems that are used increasingly by university researchers and students.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog | Digital Scholarship |

The Potential Role for Intermediaries in Managing the Payment of Open Access Article Processing Charges (APCs)

JISC has released The Potential Role for Intermediaries in Managing the Payment of Open Access Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Here's an excerpt:

This report examines the operational challenges that universities, funders and publishers face in the UK relating to the payment of article processing charges (APCs)—the charges levied by the publishers of open access and hybrid journals to meet the costs of the publication process. It then examines the feasibility of using intermediaries of various kinds to provide services to aggregate payments as between universities and publishers, along with other services relating to the processes involved in ensuring that an article is published on open access terms. . . .

We conclude as a result of our work that with a very few exceptions, the systems and processes currently associated with the payment of APCs are sub-optimal, and could present a significant barrier to the wider adoption of open access publishing.

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

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

"An Emerging Consensus for Open Evaluation: 18 Visions for the Future of Scientific Publishing"

Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, Alexander Walther, and Diana Deca have published "An Emerging Consensus for Open Evaluation: 18 Visions for the Future of Scientific Publishing" in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.

Here's an excerpt:

A grand challenge of our time, therefore, is to design the future system, by which we evaluate papers and decide which ones deserve broad attention and deep reading. However, it is unclear how exactly OE [Open Evaluation] and the future system for scientific publishing should work. This motivated us to edit the Research Topic "Beyond open access: visions for open evaluation of scientific papers by post-publication peer review" in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. The Research Topic includes 18 papers, each going beyond mere criticism of the status quo and laying out a detailed vision for the ideal future system. . . .

While each paper elaborates on particular challenges, the solutions proposed have much overlap, and where distinct solutions are proposed, these are generally compatible. This puts us in a position to present our synopsis here as a coherent blueprint for the future system that reflects the consensus among the contributors.1

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

| Digital Scholarship |

Authors Guild et al. v. Google: "Brief of Amici Curiae Academic Authors in Support of Defendant-Appellant and Reversal"

Pamela Samuelson and David R. Hansen have self-archived "Brief of Amici Curiae Academic Authors in Support of Defendant-Appellant and Reversal" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Summary of argument: Class certification was improperly granted below because the District Court failed to conduct a rigorous analysis of the adequacy of representation factor, as Rule 23(a)(4) requires. The three individual plaintiffs who claim to be class representatives are not academics and do not share the commitment to broad access to knowledge that predominates among academics. . . .

Academic authors desire broad public access to their works such as that which the Google Books project provides. Although the District Court held that the plaintiffs had inadequately represented the interests of academic authors in relation to the proposed settlement, it failed to recognize that pursuit of this litigation would be even more adverse to the interests of academic authors than the proposed settlement was. . . .

In short, a "win" in this case for the class representatives would be a "loss" for academic authors. It is precisely this kind of conflict that courts have long recognized should prevent class certification due to inadequate representation. The District Court failed to adequately address this fundamental conflict in its certification order, though it was well aware of the conflict through submissions and objections received from the settlement fairness hearing through to the hearings on the most recent class certification motions. Because of that failure, the order certifying the class should be reversed

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

DOAB User Needs Analysis—Final Report

The Directory of Open Access Books has released the DOAB User Needs Analysis—Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

This final evaluation and recommendation report is based on the user experiences, needs, and expectations as they emerged from the qualitative components (survey, workshop and online discussion platform) that were used to conduct the DOAB User Needs Analysis. This final public report, intended for the wider academic and publishing community, aims to advise in the establishment of procedures, criteria and standards concerning the set-up and functioning of the DOAB platform and service and to devise guidelines and recommendations for admissions to DOAB and for its further development, sustainability and implementation.

Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography Cover

| Digital Scholarship |

Books at JSTOR Launches

JSTOR has launched Books at JSTOR.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

JSTOR is pleased to announce the launch of its new books program, Books at JSTOR, which brings scholarly monographs from leading university presses and other academic publishers to the JSTOR platform. Books are deeply integrated with the 1,600 current and archival journals on JSTOR. All content is cross-searchable, and books are linked with millions of book reviews and from hundreds of thousands of book citations within the journal literature.

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