Category Archives: oa.physics

Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

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“The A&A Board of Directors has announced that their journal will move to a Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) model. If libraries renew their subscriptions, A&A will be published in full open access in 2022. Since its launch in 1969, A&A has been publishing pioneering, peer reviewed scientific content. The transition to open access will extend access of its high-quality research to a worldwide audience – furthering the field of astronomy and astrophysics. Library subscriptions, together with substantial contributions from the A&A sponsoring countries, will cover publication and editorial costs and enable content to become open access….”

New collaboration between SCOAP³ For Books and OAPEN: Open Access Books in Particle Physics | OAPEN

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“SCOAP³ – the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics – is collaborating with OAPEN as part of its latest open access book initiative. Since the introduction of SCOAP³ in 2012 under the auspices of the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN), the transition to open access for scientific articles in particle physics has progressed rapidly. Over 90% of the annually published scientific articles in High-Energy physics have been made free for both readers and authors worldwide.

In 2019, the SCOAP³ Governing Council approved the SCOAP³ for Books initiative to expand the content made available through the program to include academic books in particle physics and neighboring disciplines (including accelerator physics, instrumentation, etc)….”

The AAS goes for Gold | Published by The Open Journal of Astrophysics

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“Yesterday there was a big announcement from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) , namely that all its journals will switch to Open Access from 1st January 2022. This transition will affect the Astronomical Journal (AJ), the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL), and the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS). Previously authors were able to opt for Open Access but from next year it will apply to all papers.

The positive aspect to this change is that it makes articles published by the AAS freely available to the public and other scientists without requiring the payment of a subscription.

On the other hand, these journals will require authors to pay a hefty sum, equivalent to an Article Processing Charge (APC), that increases with the length and complexity of a paper. AAS journals have in the past levied “page charges” from authors for standard (non-OA) publications. In the new regime these are merged into a unified scheme….

What’s on offer is therefore a form of Gold Open Access that switches the cost of publication from subscribers to authors. In my view this level of APC is excessive, which is why I call this Fool’s Gold Open Access. Although the AAS is a not-for-profit organization, its journals are published by the Institute of Physics Publishing which is a definitely-for-profit organization….”

Researchers and publishers respond to new UK open-access policy – Physics World

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“The largest funding body in the UK has announced a new open-access policy that will come into effect on 1 April 2022. UK Research and Inno­vation (UKRI) – the umbrella group for the UK’s seven research coun­cils – will from that date mandate that all published papers written by researchers containing work carried out using UKRI cash must be free to read immediately upon publication. Yet the announcement has been met with concern by some publishers and researchers….”

 

(IUCr) An open-access future for Journal of Synchrotron Radiation – Editorial from the Main Editors and IUCr Journals Editor-in-Chief

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“The entire Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (JSR) editorial team would like to take this opportunity to inform all our readers, authors and supporters about the coming transition to open access. All papers submitted to JSR after 1 October 2021 will be for open-access publication. By taking this step, JSR is supporting a journey towards open science in general….

At this time, we wish to express our enormous appreciation of JSR’s supporting (facility) institutions. We also hope that more supporting institutions will join with JSR as we move forward from here. JSR supporting institutions are entitled to a certain number of open-access article processing charge (APC) vouchers per year for papers reporting work carried out at their facilities. Alternatively, if the contact author’s home institution is included in a transformative or read-and-publish arrangement with the IUCr’s publication partner, Wiley, those authors will be able to publish open-access research or review articles in JSR with no direct (APC) charge. Currently, such arrangements exist in Austria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Contact authors with connections to IUCr (Associates, members of national affiliates, World Directory of Crystallography, etc.) will receive modest APC discounts. Meanwhile, discounts (50%) for authors from lower middle income countries and waivers (100%) from low income countries will be issued. However, please note that a major difference from present arrangements is that all submitting authors will need to apply for such discounts and waivers at the time of submission and payments will be handled via Wiley authors services (for more details see https://journals.iucr.org/s/services/openaccess.html)….”

 

Physicists lose in ARC pre-print shambles | Campus Morning Mail

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“On instruction of the Senate, the Australian Research Council reported yesterday on grant applications ruled ineligible for breaking the rule against including any reference to pre-prints

17 Future Fellowship applications were excluded out of 675 and 15  out of 996 were cut from consideration for the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award.

All excluded applications were either in astronomy/space science or (mainly) from four FoR categories of physics….

As Danny Kingsley points out (CMM August 23) physicists have been using pre-prints for 30 years. “Why were the serious implications of this requirement only noticed at the point where applications were excluded?” she asks.”

IOP Publishing and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory launch open access journal – Materials Futures | Mirage News

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IOP Publishing and the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (SLAB), in affiliation with the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, are launching a new open access journal covering all areas of basic and applied materials science and technology.

SPIE announces three-year Read and Publish agreement with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

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“SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is pleased to announce a three-year Read and Publish agreement with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

The new agreement began on 1 January 2021. The agreement includes unlimited, open-access publishing in SPIE journals with no article-processing fees for affiliated authors. It also incorporates read access to all SPIE journals, proceedings, and eBooks in the SPIE Digital Library which comprises more than 530,000 publications covering topical areas ranging from biomedical optics and neuroscience to physics and astronomy-related technology….”

SPIE announces three-year Read and Publish agreement with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

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“SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is pleased to announce a three-year Read and Publish agreement with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

The new agreement began on 1 January 2021. The agreement includes unlimited, open-access publishing in SPIE journals with no article-processing fees for affiliated authors. It also incorporates read access to all SPIE journals, proceedings, and eBooks in the SPIE Digital Library which comprises more than 530,000 publications covering topical areas ranging from biomedical optics and neuroscience to physics and astronomy-related technology….”

SPIE announces “Read and Publish” agreement with the Weizmann Institute of Science

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“SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is pleased to announce a “Read and Publish” agreement with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

The agreement, which began on 1 January, adds unlimited, open-access publishing in SPIE journals and proceedings to the SPIE Digital Library subscription. Affiliated authors may publish in SPIE journals with no article-processing fees. The SPIE Digital Library comprises more than 530,000 publications covering topical areas ranging from biomedical optics and neuroscience to physics and astronomy-related technology….”

Frontiers | Collaborative Processes in Science and Literature: an In-Depth Look at the Cases of CERN and SIC | Research Metrics and Analytics

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Abstract:  In this paper we examine how the process of collaboration works in science and literature. In the first part, we discuss the features of scientific collaboration and literary collaboration and the differences between them. In the second part, we analyze two processes of collaboration, each from a different field: the case of CERN and high-energy physics and the case of Scrittura Industriale Collettiva and its Great Open Novel. Lastly, we try to compare those two processes and deduce the common traits of a successful collaboration.

 

Achieving Open Access in Physics | News Releases | The Optical Society

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“We as physics societies exist to ensure that physics delivers on its exceptional potential to benefit society. We recognise the important role of universal access to knowledge in achieving this goal and are therefore committed to making open access (OA) to physics research a reality. We welcome the increased policy momentum towards open science publishing but urge all stakeholders to ensure that the routes by which we achieve OA preserve the diversity, quality and financial sustainability of the peer-reviewed publishing upon which our research community depends.

Physics has long embraced open science and OA to research results. Physicists were among the first to share preprints via arXiv (1991), launch fully OA journals such as Optics Express (1997) and New Journal of Physics (1998), and implement innovative OA business models like SCOAP3 (2014). We continue to invest in launching high-quality OA journals, such as Physical Review X and Optica, and have established a range of transformative agreements1 with institutions to facilitate their transition to OA. Over the past decade, such proactive engagement has resulted in an average annual growth in OA physics articles of more than 25%, compared with an overall average annual growth in physics articles of around 2%2.

Whilst there has been considerable progress in creating fully OA physics journals, more than 85% of all physics articles continue to be published in hybrid journals3. Hybrid journals therefore still have an essential role to play in balancing the expansion of OA with preserving researchers’ freedom to publish in the most appropriate journal for their research. The ability of these journals to transition sustainably is challenged by the prospect of free and unrestricted distribution of accepted manuscripts without concomitant funding for the peer review and publication costs involved4. We are concerned that policies such as the proposed cOAlition S Rights Retention Strategy would undermine the viability of high-quality hybrid journals and mean that many physics researchers no longer have an adequate range of options or freedom of choice in where they publish their work….”

CERN Announces New Open Data Policy in Support of Open Science

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“The four main LHC collaborations (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) have unanimously endorsed a new open data policy for scientific experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which was presented to the CERN Council today. The policy commits to publicly releasing so-called level 3 scientific data, the type required to make scientific studies, collected by the LHC experiments. Data will start to be released approximately five years after collection, and the aim is for the full dataset to be publicly available by the close of the experiment concerned. The policy addresses the growing movement of open science, which aims to make scientific research more reproducible, accessible, and collaborative….”