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Monthly Archives: July 2018
[Urging Germany and Sweden to hold firm in negotiations with Elsevier]
“The background to this story is that Germany and Sweden have been setting a great example to the rest of the world by refusing to let Elsevier walk all over them in negotiations. (My own country, the UK, talked tough and then meekly accepted a deal that basically changed nothing.) Interestingly, Elsevier decided at first not to cut off access to its journals. Why might they have done this? My interpretation, which could be wrong, is that they were afraid of the world seeing that an entire country can walk away from its expensive subscriptions to ScienceDirect, the Elsevier platform, and continue to function without any major inconvenience.
But of course, that left them in an awkward position: if they are letting you read their articles for no charge, then you have no incentive to reach a deal where you will start to pay for them — quite the reverse. So now they have done what I suppose they had to do and finally cut off access to their papers. This is a very important moment: please, Germans and Swedes, hold firm. If it becomes clear that your academics are suffering badly, then maybe you’ll have to do something, but it is in the interests of the whole world that you should do this experiment properly so that we get an idea of how serious the consequences are of not having access. Of course, I’m expecting that they will not be all that serious, which would, in principle at least, hugely improve the bargaining position of everyone who negotiates with Elsevier.”
Terms and conditions for research grants | Parkinson’s UK
“Once a grant has been awarded [by Parkinson’s UK] and accepted, the grantholder and host institution are bound by our research grant terms and conditions and revenue sharing policy….”
The policy was apparently new or updated in July 2018.
Red Pulse PHOENIX
“PHOENIX is both a new platform and token (PHX). We’re building on top of the original roadmap that was initially outlined in our whitepaper, adding a new cloud-based knowledge network that connects research consumers with content-producers. PHOENIX will utilize machine learning, natural language processing, and blockchain technology to power a more efficient ecosystem for matching industry experts to clients looking for insights….”
The PHOENIX Report – Red Pulse
“The next phase of our platform development now calls for an upgrade to our core infrastructure to support the upcoming Red Pulse PHOENIX open research platform, which will enable several core elements of our research and knowledge ecosystem….
PHOENIX aims to leverage machine learning, natural language processing, and blockchain technology to create a more efficient and cost-effective ecosystem of knowledge sharing that will have regulatory compliance and accountability built right in….”
Foundations for Open Scholarship Strategy Development
“This document aims to agree on a broad, international strategy for the implementation of open scholarship that meets the needs of different national and regional communities but works globally.
Scholarly research can be an inspirational process for advancing our collective knowledge to the benefit of all humankind. However, current research practices often struggle with a range of tensions and conflicts as it adapts to a largely digital system. What is broadly termed as Open Scholarship is an attempt to realign modern research practices with this ideal. We do not propose a definition of Open Scholarship, but recognise that it is a holistic term that encompasses many disciplines, practices, and principles, sometimes also referred to as Open Science or Open Research. We choose the term Open Scholarship to be more inclusive of these other terms.
The purpose of this document is to provide a concise analysis of where the global Open Scholarship movement currently stands: what the common threads and strengths are, where the greatest opportunities and challenges lie, and how we can more effectively work together as a global community to recognise the top strategic priorities. This document was inspired by the Foundations for OER Strategy Developmentand work in the FORCE11 Scholarly Commons Working Group, and developed by an open contribution working group.
Our hope is that this document will serve as a foundational resource for continuing discussions and initiatives about implementing effective strategies to help streamline the integration of Open Scholarship practices into a modern, digital research culture. Through this, we hope to extend the reach and impact of Open Scholarship into a global context, making sure that it is truly open for all. We also hope that this document will evolve as the conversations around Open Scholarship progress, and help to provide useful insight for both global co-ordination and local action. We believe this is a step forward in making Open Scholarship the norm.
Ultimately, we expect the impact of widespread adoption of Open Scholarship to be diverse. We expect novel research practices to increase the pace of innovation, and therefore stimulate critical industries around the world. We could also expect to see an increase in public trust of science, as transparency becomes more normative. As such, we expect interest in Open Scholarship to increase at multiple levels, due to its inherent influence on society and global economics….”
The first honest Baloney Journal – Netfuture
“We did it! The first honest Baloney Journal has been founded! It is available at kaese-journal.ch, the German equivalent of Baloney Journal. Submission is open now for the first issue, for anything already the author considers Baloney.
Have you ever wondered how your colleagues were able to submit their latest baloney in amazingly-sounding journals? And how little information was in there? Now, you can do this, too!
The Baloney Journal[1] is here to help. It is the first free Open Access journal committed to publishing every piece of baloney! …”
Scienceroot | The first Blockchain-Based Scientific Ecosystem
“Our goal is to create an ecosystem where anyone in the scientific community around the globe will have the ability to gather funding, interact, discuss research ideas, collaborate and in the end, publish their work through a more efficient, intuitive and transparent platform.”
Director, Open Science – Reed Exhibitions Careers
“Elsevier is looking for a highly motivated individual that will drive the delivery of business objectives. Throughout this role; you will promote a positive policy environment by ensuring we have the correct policies, communications, and influencing programs in place. You will continue to build trust and influence with Research Leaders and you will support commercial goals.
Your responsibilities
Promote a positive policy environment
- Detect, understand, and interpret external policies and related technical, scientific and legal information; effectively communicate this information internally
- Lead the development of any positions in response, and ensure any other necessary actions are taken internally or externally to influence/respond to the external policy environment
- Ensure we have the right policies in place to support the successful evolution of our business
- Work with RELX Government Affairs and others to help shape/influence legislation and policy
Build trust and influence with Research Leaders
- Represent Elsevier externally to effectively communicate our position and build relationships on Open Access with institutions, funders, policymakers
- Enhance Elsevier’s external advocacy and empower all external facing staff to influence effectively.
- Global influencing to raise awareness of Elsevier’s existing support for OS through conference attendance, sponsorships and speaking opportunities.
Support commercial goals
- Work to secure funding body and other OA agreements, in line with our OA strategy, to increase Elsevier’s position in open access
- Work closely with Sales and other stakeholders to support their commercial objectives Work closely with Product teams to support their objectives”
University of British Columbia: Recognizing Open in Promotion and Tenure | EDUCAUSE
“Driven by student government advocacy, one university’s change to its promotion and tenure guide highlights an important way institutions can incentivize open practices and provide a model for others to follow. Last year, the University of British Columbia (UBC) made a giant leap in the support of open education: the inclusion of language recognizing open educational resources (OER) in the institution’s “Guide to Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Procedures at UBC.” Driven by effective student government advocacy, this change highlights the importance of tenure and promotion as a way for institutions to incentivize open practices and will hopefully provide a model for others to follow….”
Open Library Environment (OLE)
“OLE is a global library community that empowers libraries to collaborate on innovative and open solutions by pooling resources and insights….OLE empowers the library community to re-examine business operations and develop new workflows that reflect the changing nature of scholarship; OLE liberates libraries from outdated models and proprietary technologies through creative collaboration and open source development; OLE collaborates on open source initiatives that strengthen libraries’ capacity to innovate and meet the needs of their users; OLE builds inclusive partnerships focused on financial support, collaborative functional and technical design, software development, and support for OLE partners.
EC Expert Group on Turning FAIR Data into Reality – CODATA
“The European Commission’s Expert Group on FAIR Data, chaired by Simon Hodson, CODATA Executive Director, published the interim report ‘Turning FAIR Data into Reality’ and the interim ‘FAIR Data Action Plan’ on 11 June 2018 at the Second EOSC Summit in Brussels….”
Will Europe Lead a Global Flip to Open Access? – The Scholarly Kitchen
“From a distance, you might think that journal publishers should be celebrating their success in Europe. They are being offered the open access (OA) crown, locking in OA contracts and article flows. But, European policy targets are adding complexity. The emergent problem is straightforward: there appears to be no realistic path forward that achieves the 2020 OA targets without resulting in substantial revenue reductions for existing publishers. Will Europe miss its OA target? Or will publishers miss their revenue targets?…”
An Open Science future – Europe leads the way | About Hindawi
“Hindawi submitted a proposal this May in response to the European Commission’s tender to launch a new publishing platform. The Commission’s aim is to build on their progressive Open Science agenda to provide an optional Open Access publishing platform for the articles of all researchers with Horizon 2020 grants. The platform will also provide incentives for researchers to adopt Open Science practices, such as publishing preprints, sharing data, and open peer review. The potential for this initiative to lead a systemic transformation in research practice and scholarly communication in Europe and more widely should not be underestimated. Here we outline our bid to the Commission and our rationale for doing so.”
Blockchain in the European Union: How the European Parliament approaches DLTs
“In the meantime, we already work for open data for the public good, since this would be the fuel of the future and science. Blockchain could play an important role to give transparency in the use of our data for science, to know who when where and why is using it….”