“National open access (OA) experts are gathering together on the 2 and 3 December 2014 in London, United Kingdom, to promote the development, implementation and alignment of open access policies across Europe.

The Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research (PASTEUR4OA), funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7), are hosting the event, organised by Jisc, to encourage European alignment of open access policies, according to the European Commission’s Open Access Mandate for Horizon 2020, which asks that the research findings of projects funded by Horizon 2020 are made freely available online….”

“Welcome to the newest resource for the optics and photonics community! Optipedia takes pages directly from popular SPIE Press books and links them together to create your open-access resource for trusted optics and photonics information….”

Informa have just published a 2-page article.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/21678421.2014.984725?journalCode=afd

The author tells us it’s Open Access but Informa charge 54 USD for 1 day’s read.

That’s right, 27 USD per page (and probably taxes).

How can ANYONE justify this?

Does this not make you very angry?

No doubt Informa will tell us it’s “a bump on the road” (Elsevier), “a glitch” (Springer). It’s a bump that means they take money they are not entitled to. In my view that’s unacceptable trading.

Publishers have a duty to serve authors and readers. Simply saying “oh we made a mistake, please be sorry for us” is unacceptable.

The author is a member of Patients Like Me, a charity devoted to patients. He cares.

Informa doesn’t seem to care about patients.

And that’s shown by the HUGE charges for reproducing papers.

If you wanted to photocopy it, as a non-profit, and distribute 50 copies it would cost you 3 USD per photocopy page. Try it on Rightslink. Charging huge amounts to non-profits and similar to reproduce articles make me very very angry.

UPDATE.

Apparently this was an invited editorial and it was promised as some form of free access (almost certainly not CC-BY). Therefore the implied contract is informal and the publishers have retained the right to charge whatever they like. It’s clear that they have no problems calculating a charge of 27USD per page.

The point at issue is not the details but the total lack of concern by the publisher. The extortionate rates announce “We don’t care” – to authors – to readers – more effectively than I can.

“The McGill Library seeks a Scholarly Communications Librarian to work closely with the McGill

and engage with researchers on other scholarly communications issues….”

“The Scholarly Communications Manager will be responsible for the management and development of the University’s Institutional Repository (USIR), and the Library’s support for wider Open Access (OA) scholarly publishing and digital collections. They will oversee the payments of APCs and ensure compliance regarding making articles open access in line with funder policies. Liaising with internal and external partners, the post holder will contribute to developing relevant policies and procedures and advocate for open access and the use of the repository. …”

“

Job Beschreibung

Open Access Coordinator (m/f) Professionals, Vollzeit, Unbefristet, Marketing Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg

Introducing ourselves:With 63 publishing companies in 25 countries in Europe, Asia and the USA, Springer Science+ Business Media is now one of the world’s leading publishers for specialist knowledge and information. Our publishing competence and our long tradition provide the ideal conditions for high-quality content. Job duties:    Job Duties: Springer’s open access journal and book portfolio is growing rapidly, policies and workflows around open access (OA) are still developing. The Open Access Coordinator will support the growth of open access at Springer. The responsibilities and tasks will focus on the set-up of workflows, project coordination and supporting other departments as point of contact for open access queries.   Your main tasks: Set-up and coordination of new OA model workflows and processes for the German Language Science (GLS) OA products; internal contact for GLS Editorial, monitoring and administration of GLS OA journal portfolio Support Publishing Editors in their relationships with external Editors, Society contacts, Editorial Board Members and other stakeholders. Internal contact for new SpringerOpen journal projects, coordination until set-up start and thereafter jointly with OA development team  Administration and monitoring of repository upload workflows  Administrative coordination of large OA projects Internal contact point for Open Choice, SpringerOpen books, SpringerOpen Supplements and self-archiving related workflow set-ups Contact for editors on journal specific queries on Open Choice (Open Choice special issues, supplements, invoicing, non-standard pricing set-up, etc.) Second-line help desk for external queries on Open Choice and self-archiving Maintaining various OA information in Lounge, team platforms, and springer.com Job requirements:     Educated to degree level (at least Bachelor Degree) If previous work experience, preferred within or interest in open access and STM publishing Excellent interpersonal skills, strong verbal and written communication skills in German and in English Proven ability to work cooperatively with colleagues at all levels  Ability to work autonomously Strong organizational skills, with attention to detail Strong analytical skills  A high level of computer literacy First experience in project coordination Good communication skills for handling projects with cross-departmental scope are desirable Please apply using our online application system. If this is not possible, please send your complete application to: Springer-Verlag GmbH Human Resources Ms Tiina Konrad Tiergartenstrasse 17 69121 Heidelberg Germany

“

“A playlist of all videos from OpenCon 2014, the Student and Early Career Conference on Open Access, Open Education and Open Data”

Abstract:  The UK Research Councils (RCUK) introduced an open access policy, and accompanying funding for Article Processing Charges (APCs), in April 2013. This article describes University College London (UCL)’s experience of managing its institutional, RCUK, and Wellcome Trust open access funds, and highlights its success in exceeding the RCUK target in the first year of the policy. A large institution, processing around 1,770 APCs in 2013–2014, UCL has established a dedicated Open Access Funding Team. As well as advising authors on funders’ and publishers’ requirements, managing payments, and liaising with publishers, the Team delivers a comprehensive open access advocacy programme throughout the institution. Researchers who have used the Team’s services show astonishing levels of enthusiasm for open access, and for UCL’s approach to supporting them.

“There are a lot of other pearls of wisdom to be found in this work, but there is one in particular that stood out [omitting a graphic]. This is essentially saying that data should accompany the figure. A hundred years later, we’re still far from applying this simple but powerful rule. Projects like The Content Mine expend a tremendous amount of energy trying to get data back from figures, and even then it’s a very lossy process. All of that could be avoided if we just follow this one simple rule….”

“Chris Bourg has been named as the new director of the MIT Libraries, effective in February [2015]….Bourg comes to MIT from Stanford University, where she is currently associate university librarian for public services. At Stanford, Bourg oversees the largest division of the Stanford University Libraries, with six branches and a collection of more than 4 million volumes.