May 6, 2008
Open Access Directory: A wiki to organize information about the open access movement
Peter Suber and Robin Peek have launched the Open Access Directory (OAD), a wiki where the open access community can create and maintain simple factual lists about open access to science and scholarship. Suber, a Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College, and Peek, an Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, conceived the project in order to collect OA-related lists for one-stop reference and searching. The wiki will start operating with about half a dozen lists --for example, conferences devoted to open access, discussion forums devoted to open access, and journal "declarations of independence"-- and add more over time.

May 1, 2008
Irish Research Council moves to improve access to research findings

From Peter Suber's Open Access News blog:

This may be the best funder mandate anywhere.  All the strengths of the exemplary September 2007 draft policy have been preserved in this final version.  Here's what I said about it at the time:

I particularly applaud the mandatory language, the firm six month deadline with no loopholes for resisting publishers, the equal standing of central and distributed repositories, and the full implementation of the dual deposit/release strategy (or what Stevan Harnad calls immediate deposit / optional access).

May 1, 2008
You wrote it; You own it!
Authors of papers published in Rockefeller University Press journals (The Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, or The Journal of General Physiology) now retain copyright to their published work. This permits authors to reuse their own work in any way, as long as they attribute it to the original publication. Third parties may use our published materials under a Creative Commons license, six months after publication.

April 29, 2008
You pay... and now they display

April 28, 2008
Reminder About the NIH Public Access Policy

April 25, 2008
That Book Costs How Much?

April 23, 2008
Nguyen on keeping data open and free

April 22, 2008
EC recommends OA for publicly-funded research

April 22, 2008
Jorum to move to open access
It was announced today that Jorum, the UK national repository for learning and teaching materials funded by JISC, is to offer open educational resources. This will make it easier for lecturers and teaching staff to share and re-use each other's teaching resources.

April 15, 2008
Announcing a new BioMed Central journal

April 15, 2008
Open Textbooks Statement to Make Textbooks Affordable

April 15, 2008
Periodicals Price Survey 2008: Embracing Openness
Global initiatives and startling successes hint at the profound implications of open access on journal publishing

April 12, 2008
University of Southampton announces institutional Open Access mandate

April 11, 2008
Maine InfoNet has joined SCOAP3

April 11, 2008
Publishers' policies on the NIH Public Access Policy
The University of Rochester Medical Center has a page of Publishers' Policies on the NIH Public Access Policy.

April 10, 2008
Repository66 map updated

April 10, 2008
Theses For All

April 9, 2008
NIH compliance/Author self-archiving policy

From Peter Suber's Open Access News blog: 

 

• It appears that authors may self-archive to their own web sites without delay.  That's good, especially if the author's "own web site" --nearly always hosted by the institution-- includes his/her segment of the institutional repository.  If Springer insists on a distinction between the author's web site and the author's niche in the IR, then it's retreating from full green and from its previous self-archiving policy.

• Demanding the full 12 month embargo at PMC is permitted by NIH and mitigated by the option for immediate OA through the author's web site.

• I'm a little surprised that Springer wants a link to the generic Springer home page rather than a deep link --preferably, a DOI-based deep link-- to the published version of the article itself.  Doesn't it want to help readers of the self-archived edition find the published edition?

April 8, 2008
Stirling research goes global
From Peter Suber's Open Access News Blog:  The Stirling policy is not only the first university-level OA mandate in the UK, but the second worldwide (after Harvard's) to be adopted by faculty rather than administrators.  Moreover, it's detailed and strong.  I'm especially glad to see that it requires deposit "immediately upon acceptance for publication" even if it permits delayed OA "until the item has been published, and until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired."  Kudos to all involved.

April 8, 2008
Free Online College Courses Are Proliferating
Wall Street Journal on open educational resources

April 8, 2008
Microsoft Word add-in for NLM format
Prepares articles in the XML format of the National Library of Medicine

April 8, 2008
Clinical knowledge: from access to action
The Lancet, *Available to subscribers only 

April 8, 2008
Information Liberation
The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2008

April 8, 2008
ASERL Supports SCOAP3

April 8, 2008
The Audacity of SCOAP3