Advancing a publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem based on the principles of open science

“Joint response by the European University Association (EUA), Science Europe, Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Association of ERC Grantees (AERG), Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), cOAlition S, OPERAS, and French National Research Agency (ANR). We welcome the adoption by the Council of the European Union (EU) of the conclusions on highquality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing. As key public research and innovation actors in Europe, we are committed to supporting the development of a publicly owned, not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem in collaboration with policymakers in Europe and beyond….”

LIBER Appoints Interim Executive Director

“Martine Pronk currently works as head of Academic Services and member of the senior management team at Utrecht University Library, The Netherlands. In this role, she has strategic responsibility for research and education support services, including in the field of Open Science….

In her current role, Martine represents the University and University Library in several national and international networks: the Dutch implementation network Digital Competence Centers, the LERU Information and Open Access Policy Group, and the European Open Science Cloud Association. At Utrecht University she is co-lead of Track Open Access for the Open Science Programme….”

SURVEY-A-THON Series – DIAMAS

DIAMAS is also organising a series of survey-a-thons to assist participants with completing the survey in different languages, you can see information about these events here: http://diamasproject.eu/survey-a-thon-series/. 
SPARC Europe and LIBER will host a joint one in English on 26 April 2023, 10 CEST. Please register here.

 

Job Opening – Executive Director of LIBER – LIBER Europe

“LIBER is Europe’s largest research library network. We help our university, national, and special libraries to support world-class research. Founded in 1971 and based in The Hague, LIBER is a partner in many European projects that address barriers on the path towards Open Science. LIBER is seeking an Executive Director to coordinate and implement our strategic actions, manage the LIBER Office, and advocate for our research library members at the European level….”

New Focus on Open Textbooks in LIBER Educational Resources Working Group – LIBER Europe

“Over the next two years, the LIBER Educational Resources Working Group will focus on promoting and advancing in the area of open textbooks. This is a call for new members.

Enhancing discoverability of open textbooks and collection curation,
Peer review and evaluation of open textbooks outside of publishing houses,
Measuring and assessing impact of open textbooks….”

Survey of Open Repositories in Europe

“The aim of this survey is to gain a better understanding of the repository landscape in Europe in order to develop a relevant and effective strategy to strengthen repositories in the region…. 

The survey is being undertaken by OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR as part of their Joint Strategy to Strengthen the European Repository Network. Results of the survey will be presented in a report in summer 2023. Aggregate, anonymised data will be deposited into the Zenodo repository. No personal information will be shared beyond the survey analysis team and contact information will be used for internal purposes only.

The survey is open to any open research / scholarly repository based in Europe and should be completed by a person who is responsible for managing the repository….”

OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe and COAR Launch Joint Strategy to Strengthen the European Repository Network – COAR

“Open science is ushering in a new paradigm for research; one in which all  researchers have unprecedented access to the full corpus of research for analysis, text and data mining, and other novel research methods. A prerequisite for achieving this vision is a strong and well-functioning network of repositories that provides human and machine access to the wide range of valuable research outputs. Repositories also support much needed bibliodiversity in the system as they collect a diverse range of content types, domains and languages, and are fundamental for achieving Europe’s desired changes to research evaluation, whereby “assessment of research, researchers and research organisations recognises the diverse outputs, practices and activities that maximise the quality and impact of research”.

Currently, Europe has one of the most well-developed networks globally with hundreds of repositories hosted by universities, research centres, government departments, and not-for-profit organisations. However, there are significant variations across the European repository landscape with differing levels of support and funding; and, while some countries have strong national coordination, others do not. In a practical sense, this means that some repositories have access to the resources they need to provide a well-functioning service, while others find it a challenge to maintain up-to-date software platforms and suitable staffing levels….

To that end, today OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR are launching a joint strategy aimed at strengthening the European repository network. Through this strategy we are committed to working together – and with other relevant organisations – to develop and execute an action plan that will reinforce and enhance repositories in Europe. As a first step, we will undertake a survey that will enable us to have a better understanding of the current repository landscape and identify priority areas of action. The survey will be available in February 2023.”

Job: Project Officer | LIBER Europe

LIBER is Europe’s largest research library network. We help our university, national, and special libraries to support world-class research. Founded in 1971 and based in The Hague, LIBER is a partner in many European projects that address barriers on the path towards Open Science. LIBER is seeking a Project Officer (with a focus on dissemination, communication & engagement) to organise European project-related events and activities and to work on other project-related tasks.

LIBER Strategy Report 2022: Year in Review

“We are delighted to have started work in three new projects, DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication), the CeOS_SE Project (Citizen-Enhanced Open Science in Southeastern Europe Higher Education Knowledge Hubs) and LibrarIN (Value Co-Creation and Social Innovation for a New Generation of European Libraries). We continue our active participation in four existing international projects, MES-CoBraD, ReCreating Europe, Open Research Europe (ORE) and Knowledge Rights 21. Finally, we concluded three projects, European Language Equality (ELE), Integrating Open and Citizen Science into Active Learning Approaches in Higher Education (INOS), and Social Sciences and Humanities for the European Open Science Cloud (SSHOC), successfully….”

 

Strategy 2023-2027 – LIBER Europe

“Our strategy for the period 2023-2027 focuses on leading developments to get ahead of radical changes happening in the research landscape.

We have identified top driving factors that will affect research libraries and LIBER, and formulated strategic undertakings to maintain our strong position in enabling world-class research….

By 2027, in collaboration with researchers, research libraries stimulate, facilitate, co-develop and manage infrastructures and practices designed to take Open Science to the next level….”

LIBER Takes the Lead in Secondary Publishing Rights Work Package for the Knowledge Rights 21 Programme | LIBER Europe

The Knowledge Rights 21 Programme works to provide research and insights and that will create positive change in copyright policy making. One of its work packages consists of looking at Secondary Publishing Rights, and paving the way toward immediate republication of publicly funded research on open access repositories, regardless of publisher contracts. LIBER will carry out research on current national legislation and good practices for Secondary Publishing Rights across Europe.

 

A Position Statement from Knowledge Rights 21 on Secondary Publishing Rights

“Academic authors traditionally routinely assign their copyright to proprietary publishers, or do not retain sufficient rights allowing them or their funders to republish or reuse their own work. This practice stands in opposition to the aim of education and research – to maximise the impact of research by sharing it as widely as possible in a timely manner. Knowledge Rights 21 believes that European countries should introduce secondary publishing rights in respect of publicly funded research into all national laws, which in the case of the EU member states could be best facilitated by a European Directive or Regulation….”

Secondary Publishing Rights – New Position Statement from Knowledge Rights 21 – Knowledge Rights 21

“Another, more comprehensive approach has been taken by a number of individual European countries who have established in law the right to republish publicly funded articles irrespective of publisher contracts. Such “secondary publishing rights” – a concept which refers to the right to republish publicly funded research after its first publication in an open access repository or elsewhere – are another key tool for promoting Open Access (OA).

Launched today, Knowledge Rights 21’s position statement on secondary publishing rights supports LIBER’s Zero Embargo campaign and secondary publishing rights model law.

KR21 calls on the national governments of Europe as well as the European Union to introduce secondary publishing laws which enable immediate access to publicly funded research in article or book chapter form….”