In this issue:
1. SPARC News
2. Partner News
3. Industry Roundup
4. Open Access News
5. SPARC Innovator: University of California
6. Upcoming Workshops
7. Articles of Interest
___________________________________________________________________
NB: SPARC
Europe, along with LIBER and the University of
Glasgow, is hosting Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open
Access Repositories
at the University of Glasgow, Scotland on 18-20 October 2006.
Open Scholarship 2006 is a companion European Conference to the OAI
meetings at
CERN in Geneva, and to the Nordic Scholarly Communication Conferences,
and is aimed at librarians, university administrators, funders,
academics and
technical specialists. Please see Upcoming Workshops item below
for further details.
___________________________________________________________________
1. SPARC News: New SPARC
Resources Available
SPARC recently retooled and republished on the web its Create
Change resource. The site has been updated to provide faculty with
current
information, perspectives, and tools that will enable them to play an
active role in advancing scholarly information exchange in the
networked
environment. The new Create Change Web site
(http://www.createchange.org) is based around the idea that the ways
faculty share and use academic
research results are changing rapidly and irreversibly. By posing the
question, “Shouldn’t the way we share research be as advanced as
the Internet?” the site outlines how faster and wider sharing of
journal articles, research data, simulations, syntheses, analyses, and
other
findings fuels the advance of knowledge. It also offers practical ways
faculty can look out for their own interests as researchers.
If you missed the SPARC-ACRL Forum on Open Data at the ALA conference in New
Orleans, listen to the presentations in a SPARC podcast available at
http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/ala06/index.html.
___________________________________________________________________
2.
Partner News
New SPARC Alliance With eIFL.net
SPARC has partnered with eIFL.net, an independent foundation that
leads, negotiates, supports, and advocates for the wide availability of
electronic
resources for library users in transitional and developing countries.
eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries) assists libraries and
their
users in achieving affordable access to electronic scholarly resources.
It focuses on the creation and strengthening of library consortia in
member
countries to ensure access to and the effective use of electronic
tools. Efforts include advising members on consortium-related issues,
negotiating
and licensing affordable subscriptions, and building knowledge and
competence in open access resources – including ways to capture local
content in institutional repositories. eIFL also advises its members on
appropriate technology solutions with a focus on open source software.
eIFL.net includes over 2,200 libraries in 50 countries, with a total
population of about 800 million. A complete listing of eIFL.net’s
membership can be found at http://www.eifl.net/countries/countries.html.
BioOne
BioOne is launching a second journal collection scheduled to be
available in January 2007 and it is asking subscribers for help in
naming the new
database. The winner will receive a $100 American Express® gift
certificate.
BioOne’s second collection will build on the success of the first
collection with biological sciences content from additional scholarly
publishers. BioOne is currently recruiting publishers and content for
the new database, and plans to launch with at least 30 titles. An
initial title
list and pricing is forthcoming later this summer. To enter
suggestions for BioOne’s name, please e-mail Jeff Downing by 5:00 p.m.
CST,
Monday July 31 at: downing@amigos.org. Further information and
guidelines can be found on the BioOne site: http://www.bioone.org.
BioMed Central
Eleven journals published by BioMed Central recently received their
first impact factor. With nine journals in the top 10 of their 2005
Journal
Citation Report category, and ten journals with a 2005 Impact Factor
exceeding 3.00, open access journals are confirmed as publishing
high-quality, highly cited research. Thirty-seven journals from
BioMed Central now have impact factors or are tracked by Thomson
Scientific. In
the last six months alone, Thomson Scientific has accepted a total of
eleven journals published by BioMed Central for citation tracking and
inclusion
in Web of Science.
Public Library of Science
Getting involved with PLOS is easy now that PLOS has launched a blog to
give readers an insider's view of the latest developments.
Content is
divided into two tracks:
-
Publishing: This track allows for discussion of PLOS’s latest
e-publishing initiatives.
-
Technology: This track allows for debate surrounding PLOS’s new
open
access 2.0 platform.
In other news, PLoS recently announced PLoS ONE, its newest open access
innovation.
PLoS ONE will launch in November;
submissions will be accepted beginning in August. PLoS ONE accepts all
papers which demonstrate rigorously performed science and extends the
peer-review process through
post-publication by encouraging readers to add comments, annotations
and ratings to each article. PLoS ONE seeks to bring together research
from all
areas of biology and medicine reflecting an increasing
multidisciplinary approach in research and return control over
scholarly publishing to the
research community.
Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
SEP thanks its library partners who helped raise $499,000 in new
commitments and contributions by July 31, 2006. This enables SEP
to qualify
fully for the second round of matching funds from the NEH. With
the help of its library partners, SEP has made substantial progress
toward its
three-year fundraising goal of $2.5 million from libraries
worldwide. Yet, SEP still needs additional $1 million in support
from the library
community worldwide in order to fully meet the library fundraising
goals.
In tandem with funds contributed by the worldwide library community,
Stanford and SEP are working together to secure slightly over $1
million from
private donors and the individuals in the philosophy community.
Toward that end, Stanford and SEP are working together to develop
individual
gift plans to garner much needed support from interested individuals
and prospective donors. To register your commitment with SOLINET, go to
http://www.solinet.net/survey/sep.htm. For a list of
libraries
already committed to the project, see http://plato.stanford.edu/fundraising/commitments.html.
___________________________________________________________________
3. Industry Roundup
Public Access to Federally Funded Research in the Spotlight Again
In a letter issued by the US National Science Board (NSB) on June 6,
2006, the NSB determined that the U.S. government risks
jeopardizing the
"quality and credibility" of federally funded scientific research by
failing to
encourage the open exchange of scientific information.
The NSB panel examined the issue at the request of Sen. John McCain
(Rep–Ariz.), surveying nine U.S. agencies (including NIH, EPA, NOAA and
NASA) that conduct significant amounts of scientific research and found
“no consistent Federal policy regarding the dissemination of research
results,” and called for the Administration to develop a set of
overarching principles for the communication of scientific information
by
government scientists and policy makers. Shortly thereafter, Sen.
McCain introduced an amendment to the S.2802 an Innovation Bill
recently passed by
the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee. The Amendment (104) is intended to provide
for broad dissemination of the results of scientific research by
Federal
Agencies, and calls for the Director of OSTP, in consultation with the
Director of OMB, to develop and issue a set of principles for the
communication of scientific information that “encourage the open
exchange of data and results of research by Federal agency
scientists..." The report is available at
http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/.
***
RCUK’s New Guidelines for UK Research
Three of the Research Councils in the UK have issued self-archiving
mandates for all the research papers they fund. This is part of a
long-awaited
policy on open access
from Research Councils UK (RCUK), the umbrella group for the eight
Research
Councils, and
represents the first government funding bodies worldwide to impose such
mandates. The three Councils (covering biotechnology and biological
sciences,
economics and social research, and medical research) have made deposit
of research papers in open access repositories a condition of
grant. One
Council (responsible for the UK’s central research laboratories)
“strongly encourages” deposit, while the remaining four do not
yet have policies in places. It is expected that two of these will make
announcements by the end of 2006.
SPARC Europe has issued a press release
welcoming
the statements and
encourages other
funding bodies, both within the UK and internationally, to follow this
lead. SPARC Europe has also produced a table
showing the position of each Research Council. SPARC also
strongly supports
the RCUK’s move forward. See
http://www.arl.org/sparc/announce/060714.html.
___________________________________________________________________
4. Open Access News
University Provosts Unite to Express Support for Public Access Act
University provosts have signaled the growing support for
public access to federally funded research in the higher education
community by releasing an open letter endorsing the Federal Research
Public Access Act of 2006 (S.2695) . The signatories represent 25 major
U.S. universities, public and private, which are leaders in academic
research and scholarship. The letter highlights the need for more
equitable access to knowledge, and notes that broad dissemination of the
results of scholarly research is "mission-critical" to higher education
institutions - especially in an age where the federal government funds
approximately 50% of university research, and urges others in the
academic community to voice their support. The provosts write that
"widespread public dissemination levels the economic playing field for
researchers outside of well-funded universities and research centers
and creates more opportunities for innovation. Ease of access and
discovery also encourages use by scholars outside traditional
disciplinary communities, thus encouraging imaginative and productive
scholarly convergence."
The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (S. 2695), was introduced by Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Lieberman
(D-CT) in May, and would require federal agencies that fund over $100
million in annual external research to make manuscripts of
peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from that research publicly
available via the Internet.
Read the Open Letter to the Higher Education Community at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/Provosts_openletter_06-JUL.pdf.
In related news, the University of Florida student senate has passed a
resolution in support of the Public Access Act.
Text of the resolution is available at
http://www.sg.ufl.edu/MeetingPDF%5C155.htm.
***
Support for Public Access Act Broadens
- Consumer Groups Add Their Voices
Eight
consumer groups have announced their support for the Federal Research
Public Access Act of 2006. Consumer groups add their voices to those of universities,
libraries, researchers, publishers, and patients – together
representing thousands of individuals and institutions – that back the
bill. The Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer
Reports, and Consumer Project on Technology, are joined by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Essential Action, IP Justice, Public
Knowledge, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and Union for the
Public Domain in pledging their support. See http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/ for more information.
***
Taxpayer Alliance Applauds Groundbreaking Congressional Mandate for NIH Public Access
The Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA) issued its support of the
House Appropriations Committee for strengthening the National
Institutes of Health
(NIH) and directing the agency to require that its research grantees
submit an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts
to the
National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central online archive upon
acceptance for publication in a journal. This is believed to be the
first
time a Congressional panel has adopted such a mandate.
The House Appropriations Committee took this official step, which
strengthens the public access policy undertaken by NIH a year ago, as
they approved
the FY 2007 Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations measure. The NIH
policy, which was voluntary for researchers, resulted in deposit of
less than 5
percent of available NIH-funded research. The appropriations bill
containing the new mandate will be considered by the U.S. House of
Representatives,
as well as the counterpart Senate Appropriations Committee and the U.S.
Senate.
The appropriations bill also is seen to strengthen the efforts by
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to win
Congressional
endorsement of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006
(S.2695). The bill requires federal agencies that fund over $100
million in
annual
external research to make electronic manuscripts of peer-reviewed
journal articles stemming from their research publicly available via
the
Internet. ATA enthusiastically supports this measure. Details may
be found online at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.
***
Hybrid Open Access Model Experiment at the Royal Society
On June 21, The Royal Society launched a hybrid open access
service called ‘EXiS Open Choice, “ which gives authors the choice
of enabling open access for their articles by paying an up-front
publication fee. The
service is a complement to the existing subscription model, and is
available across all seven Royal Society journals. EXiS will set its
fees on a per page (rather than per article) basis to try and more
accurately reflect the actual costs of copyediting and
production. Page fees average ~$370 to $550, with the a 25% discount
applied for the first year of service.
See the press release at:
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/news.asp?year=&id=4838.
***
Open Access in the Humanities
The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies launched an open access
series called COLLeGIUM - Studies across
Disciplines in
the Humanities
and Social
Sciences. The volumes
of
the series will be based on conferences held in the Collegium. The
Helsinki Collegium is an independent institute within the University of
Helsinki,
which aims to enhance scholarly excellence within the human and social
sciences, promote dialogue between disciplines and obtain international
recognition for Finnish scholars.
***
SciELO Argentina celebrates its first
anniversary with 22 titles
The SciELO Argentina Collection
celebrates its first anniversary in July 2006. With 22 titles, almost
100
journals and roughly 1200 articles
published online and in open access mode, SciELO Argentina is
positioned to be one of the major collections in the SciELO network.
Its development is
coordinated by the Centro Argentino de Información Científica y
Tecnológica (CAYCIT-CONICET) (Argentinean Center for Scientific and
Technical Information) and supported by the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO), through its Argentina Representative and
BIREME/PAHO/WHO.
Read the full article.
***
First Monday Conference Papers Available
Selected papers from the First Monday Conference, FM10 Openness: Code,
Science and Content, are available in the June 2006 issue of First
Monday
(volume 11, number 6) at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_6/.
___________________________________________________________________
5. SPARC Innovator: University of California
For its
extraordinarily effective institution-wide vision and efforts to move
scholarly
communication
forward for the benefit of its faculty, students, and the public, SPARC
has named the University of California a SPARC Innovator. The UC
system’s achievements include the California Digital Library and the
eScholarship repository; development of groundbreaking contracts with
publishers which have helped to curtail hyperinflation in the price of
online journal subscriptions; development of guidance for faculty on
ways to
manage intellectual property and retain copyright; development through
the academic faculty senate of a series of white papers advocating
shifts in
scholarly communication; establishment of innovative new scholarly
publishing programs; initiation of an electronic publishing alliance
between the
CDL and the University of California Press; and creation of a Scholarly
Communication Officers group comprising senior librarians at each of
the 10
UC branches to harmonize local and system-wide planning and
action. To read the SPARC Innovator profile of the University of
California, please
see http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/.
___________________________________________________________________
6. Upcoming Workshops
Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories
The University of Glasgow, SPARC Europe and LIBER are sponsoring Open
Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories. This
inaugural
conference will be held at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
on 18-20 October 2006.
Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories is a
companion European Conference to the OAI meetings at CERN in Geneva,
and to
the Nordic Scholarly Communication Conferences, and is aimed at
Librarians, University Administrators, funders, academics and technical
specialists.
Open access and the development of OA repositories are transforming
scholarship and bringing new opportunities and challenges for
researchers,
librarians and publishers. Open Scholarship 2006 is a pan-European
conference which will focus on these new challenges and opportunities.
In addition
to tutorial sessions on advocacy and policy issues as well as
functionality and software issues, OS 2006 will address key themes
presented by many
leading European practitioners in the field of Open Access.
Key themes will include:
* Repository Developments
* Added Value Services
* Quality Assessment
* Policies and Implementation
* Sustainability
The conference will also provide an opportunity for posters to be
submitted and displayed in a dedicated slot in the program. Posters
should address
one of the themes of the conference and be no larger than 1m x 1m.
Further details about the poster session, including the list of themes
is
available at http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/openscholarship/posters.shtml.
To register and for further information about the conference, including
the preliminary programme go to:
http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/openscholarship.
For further information please contact openscholarship@lib.gla.ac.uk.
The organizing committee gratefully acknowledges conference sponsors:
JISC,
LIBER, SHERPA, SHERPA-Leap, Ex Libris, SURF, EPrints.org, SPARC Europe
and Proquest.
Other upcoming workshops:
Digital Libraries à la Carte: New Choices for the Future
Modular, International Digital Library Course
22-25 August 2006
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
jola.prinsen@uvt.nl
http://www.ticer.nl/06carte/
___________________________________________________________________
7. Articles of Interest
Jaschik, Scott. Rallying Behind Open Access. Inside Higher Ed. July 28, 2006.
English, Ray and Peter Suber. Public access to federally funded
research: The Cornyn-Lieberman and CURES bills.
C&RL News,
Vol. 67, No. 6. June
2006.
McCabe, Mark and Christopher Synder. Academic
Journal
Prices in a
Digital Age: A Two-Sided-Market Model. Preprint, June 2006.
Agres. Ted. Panel Faults U.S. Science Policy. The
Scientist. June
6, 2006.
Jaschik, Scott. In Whose Interest?
Inside
Higher Ed.
June 15, 2006.
Pincock, Stephen. UK Research to be Open Access.
The
Scientist. June 28, 2006.
The Rise of Open-Access Science Publishing. The Economist.
June 29, 2006.
Americans support free
access to research on the Internet.
Technology News Daily.
June, 2006.
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