1. SPARC News
Open Access Day, October 14, 2008
An amazing 120 campuses in 27 countries celebrated Open Access Day yesterday by hosting events, distributing literature, blogging, and more. Sixty campuses in the U.S., Canada, and Australia joined live video broadcasts with speakers and noted scholars Dr. Rich Roberts and Dr. Phil Bourne. On behalf of the organizers, SPARC, PLoS, and Students for FreeCulture, thanks to everyone for making Open Access a reality!
Event recordings will be available shortly. In the meantime, enjoy:
* Shout outs from Students for Free Culture and allied orgs
* Shout outs from libraries around the world
* Blog and media coverage (1 | 2 | 3) (thanks to Open Access News)
*Audio, video, and educational resources produced for the day (thanks to the Open Access Directory)
*Winners of the PLoS synchro-blog competition
Even more details are online at the Open Access Day blog.
More SPARC News:
*PLoS and SPARC release new "Voices of Open Access" video series
*Sparky Awards link up Campus MovieFest; Judges panel to include new media luminaries
* The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting, November 17-18: On-site registration rates apply beginning November 1. Register today.
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2. Partner News
Please see the SPARC Web site for a complete list of news from SPARC partners.
* Announcing the launch of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, OASPA
* New Nobel laureates published in PLoS journals
* BioOne Announces 2009 Collections, Pricing
* DRIVER and eIFL to collaborate
* Bioline budget in jeopardy
* New release of Open Conference Systems
* BioOne and PCG expand marketing and sales partnership globally
* DOAJ call for memberships
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Available in SPARC Podcasts & Media:
The Voices of Open Access Video Series
The "Voices of Open Access" series of one-minute videos captures why teachers, patient advocates, librarians, students, research funders, and physician scientists are committed to Open Access. Together, interviewees define Open Access as a fundamental component of a new system for exchanging scholarly research results, where: health is transformed; research outputs are maximized to their fullest extent; efficiencies in the research process enable faster discoveries; the best science is made possible; young people are inspired; access transcends the wealth of the institution; cost savings are realized across the research process; and medical research conducted for the public good is made available to everyone who needs it.
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3. Industry Roundup
Please see the Open Access News Blog for more on these and other industry developments from the past month.
* NIH responds to public comments on its OA policy
* Microsoft's repository platform now in beta
* U of Glasgow adopts an OA mandate
* Rockefeller UP disavows AAUP support for Conyers bill
* New WIPO director wants to "reduce the global knowledge gap"
* Springer buys BioMed Central
* Harold Varmus advises Barack Obama on science policy
* Zerhouni will step down from the NIH next month
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4. SPARC Resources for Authors
* From the NIH: Reminder Concerning Grantee Compliance with Public Access Policy and Related NIH Monitoring Activities, September 23, 2008.
More SPARC Resources for Authors.
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5. SPARC Resources for Publishers
* Learn more about the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (HR6845) and why 33 Nobel Prize-winners oppose it.
More SPARC Resources for Publishers.
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6. SPARC Resources for Students
* Join the Open Access leaders squad!
* CALL FOR ENTRIES: 2008 SPARKY AWARDS - Competition showcases student productions, offers instructors a fun and thought-provoking class assignment.
Read more on the SPARC-sponsored, Baker-authored Open Students Blog.
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7. Upcoming events
SAVE THE DATE:
The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008
November 17 and 18, 2008, Baltimore, MD
October 21, 2008
Santa Clara University
November 20, 2008
National Communications Association meeting
These and other important events can be found on the SPARC Activities Calendar.
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8. Articles of Interest
Andrea Gawrylewski, A match made in open access heaven? The Scientist, October 10, 2008
Open access publisher BioMed Central sold to Springer, Scientific American, October 7, 2008
Tara Parker-Pope, You're Sick. Now What? Knowledge Is Power, New York Times, September 29, 2008
Jocelyn Kaiser, Making Clinical Data Widely Available, Science Magazine, October 10, 2008
Noam Cohen, Don't Buy That Textbook, Download It Free, New York Times, September 14, 2008.
Michael Geist, Canada missing out on open access momentum, The Toronto Star, September 23, 2008
In Blunt Terms, Copyright Lawyers, Researchers, Librarians Blast Anti-NIH Bill, Library Journal, September 17, 2008
Australia ups the ante on global access to research, Times Higher Education, September 18, 2008
Nobel Laureates Support NIH in Open Access Debate, GenomeWeb Daily News, September 17, 2008
Richard K. Johnson, Free Our Libraries! Why We Need A New Approach to Putting Library Collections Online, Boston Library Consortium, September 25, 2008 [pdf]
A bill to overturn the NIH policy, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, October 2 edition, by Peter Suber
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You can help open access to research.
SPARC membership is open to North American and international academic and research institutions that share an interest in creating a more open and diverse marketplace for scholarly communication. Visit the SPARC Web site to learn how.