Monthly Archives: November 2018

Majority of journal’s editorial board resigns after publisher’s handling of letter about move to open access – Retraction Watch

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“A leading journal in ecology and evolution is going through an evolution of its own, following the resignation of its editor in chief and more than half of its editorial board.

The mass exodus at Diversity & Distributionscame after Wiley, which publishes the journal, allegedly blocked it from running a letter protesting the company’s decision to make D & D open access (the company disputes the claim, as we’ll detail in a bit). A letter about the issue, signed by scores of researchers worldwide, decried Wiley’s move….”

Potential Changes to UC’s Relationship with Elsevier in January 2019

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“The University of California is renegotiating its systemwide licenses with some of the world’s largest scholarly journal publishers, including industry giant Elsevier. These negotiations may create significant changes in our access to new articles published in Elsevier journals as soon as January 1, 2019. (See below for details on town hall meetings where you can learn more regarding access and timing.)

Importantly, the UC has adopted a new approach to these negotiations, seeking not only to constrain the runaway costs of journal subscriptions, but to make it easier and more affordable for UC authors to publish their research with open access. Depending on how the negotiations proceed, a range of potential outcomes could materialize:

  • If we are successful, the UC may begin to implement a new system for publishing research in Elsevier journals in the near future.
  • On the other hand, if we are unable to reach an agreement before our current contract ends on December 31, we may lose access to future articles in Elsevier’s journals through their ScienceDirect platform.

The proposed change

The agreement that the UC proposed to Elsevier covers both UC’s journal subscriptions andopen access publishing of UC research in Elsevier journals, similar to “publish and read” agreements pioneered in Europe. The proposal would give every UC author the opportunity to make their work freely accessible — automatically and upon publication — to readers and researchers around the world….”

Evaluate your RDM Offering – SPARC Europe

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“For institutions that have implemented an RDM policy, a natural next step is to evaluate one’s efforts. To that end, SPARC Europe has created a new tool that will enable you to assess various aspects of your RDM initiative, specifically, how you are contributing to optimising and professionalising research data management (RDM): policy, services and infrastructure at your institution….

This tool is based on the SPARC Europe How Open is your Research service and on the work of the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and its RISE Framework….

The tool aims to help institutions develop a strategy for an improved research data management policy and service infrastructure To get the most out of it, we suggest experimenting with it and using it as a basis for discussion with colleagues. This should help you better understand perceptions of your current RDM policy and service offering amongst a range of institutional stakeholders. Research intensive universities active in RDM will have the most benefit….

The tool is free to use. Our only request is that you tell us a bit about yourself so that we understand who finds it most useful….”

Self-publishing, Open Textbooks and Open Practices at The University of Manchester – UK Open Textbook Project

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“I spoke to Lucy May, Scholarly Communications Librarian (@UoMLib_Lucy), and Helen Dobson, Scholarly Communications Manager (@h_j_dobson), based at The University of Manchester, about open access publishing at the University and the interest they’d received from students in self-publishing journals. 

The University of Manchester Library has explored its relation to publishing over the past few years through a number of university projects, which have resulted in collaborative outputs involving both Manchester University Press (MuP) and other university departments.  In Spring 2018 MuP launched Manchester HIVE, a one-stop-shop to e-resources available via the University and host of Manchester Open Library (MoL) content.

Previously both the library and MuP had supported MoL which provided a platform for open access journals produced at the University, including the James Baldwin Review….”

Helping learned societies explore Plan S-compliant business models

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“Wellcome, and UKRI recognise the value learned societies play in supporting researchers and contributing to a vibrant research ecosystem, but are working to implement their OA policies in line with Plan S. As such, we wish to engage the services of a consultant to explore a range of potential strategies and business models through which learned societies could adapt and thrive under Plan S. Although we envisage this work will have broad applicability for all learned societies, the focus of this work should be those which predominantly serve UK researchers and in disciplines relevant to UKRI and Wellcome’s funding areas….”

Open Science Symposium in Greece – policies, infrastructures, services, data | RDA

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“The Greek Open Science Symposium is organised in order to:

  • bring key stakeholders together and initiate open discussions and communication among them
  • understand national priorities and align them with the EC requirements for Open Access to publications, Open and FAIR research data,
  • see where Greece stands with the current technical and policy framework which drives Greek (open) research ecosystem activities, and
  • decide on how to most effectively collaborate in moving towards the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) …”

The MIT Press to launch print and open access book series with support from the MIT Libraries | MIT Libraries News

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“In Spring 2019, the MIT Press will launch <strong>Ideas, a hybrid print and digital open access book series intended for general readers that will provide strongly argued and provocative views of the effects of digital technology on our ideas and thus on culture, business, government, education, and our lives.

Series authors are experts in their field who are writing for a broad audience. Forthcoming books in <strong>Ideas include Hacking Life: Systematized Living and Its Discontents by Joseph M. Reagle, Jr. (April 2019); The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future by Ben Green (April 2019); Sharenthood by Leah Plunkett (Fall 2019); and Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein (Spring 2020), which is available now for community review.

The series is edited by David Weinberger, an author and senior researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and will be published open access with financial support from the MIT Libraries….”

The University of Chicago selects TIND IR and TIND RDM

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“TIND was selected by the University of Chicago to provide their cloud-based TIND Institutional Repository (TIND IR) and TIND Research Data Management (TIND RDM). TIND’s systems were chosen in order to better meet growing needs and interests around data sharing and preservation, open access, and reproducible research results. UChicago is migrating its existing research output from DSpace Direct. …”

Challenges in the Scholarly Publishing Cycle 2018 – ConTech

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“Building on the success of the inaugural event in 2017, this one day conference provides a unique environment for the three stakeholder groups within scholarly communication – publishers, librarians and academics – to discuss the issues they face in the creation, dissemination and use of scholarly research

The forum is organised by Research Information magazine, in partnership with Info International….”

Career Opportunities: Open Access Books Project Co-ordinator (25453)

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“Working with a variety of Springer Nature teams the OA Books Project Coordinator will be responsible for providing support in specifying and implementing workflows for OA books and for reporting on progress to fulfil growth targets. You will act as a key point of liaison between the OA books team and the production and technology teams to support the growth of OA Book products, and will be responsible for implementing best practice for open access book products and the internal systems that lead to their creation…..”

Open Letter in Support of Funder Open Publishing Mandates

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“We, the undersigned, are researchers who believe that the world’s scholarly literature is a public resource that only achieves its full value when it is freely available to all. For too long we have tolerated a pay-for-access business model for scholarly journals that is inequitable, impedes progress in our fields, and denies the public the full benefit of our work. We therefore welcome efforts on the part of public and private research funders to require that publications based on work they fund be made immediately freely and openly available without restrictions on access or use.

Funders are uniquely positioned to transform scholarly publishing by changing the explicit and implicit rules under which we all operate. We recognize that funder mandates may superficially limit our publishing options in the short term, but believe they will lead to a system that optimizes what we really care about: maximizing the reach of our scholarship and its value to the research community and public.

We understand that effective scholarly communication costs money, and support substantial investment in this endeavor, but only if it allows everyone to freely access and use the scholarly literature. We acknowledge that challenges remain, especially ensuring that all scholars everywhere have the unfettered ability to freely share their work and have their contributions recognized. And we therefore commit to continue working with funders, universities, research institutions and other stakeholders until we have created a stable, fair, effective and open system of scholarly communication….”

Big European funders flesh out plan towards immediate free access to journals | Science|Business

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“The architects of Plan S, a contentious plan to tear down scholarly journals’ paywalls in Europe, have laid out more details on how the initiative will work.

In a seven-page implementation guidance note published on Tuesday, funders backing the plan, including the European Research Council, national agencies in France, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as private funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, explain how grantees can abide by Plan S rules by 2020, when it goes into effect.

The note says that, aside from publishing in an open access journal or platform, researchers can comply with Plan S by publishing in a subscription journal provided they also make a peer reviewed version immediately available in a repository. Many top journals do not allow this until at least six months after publication….

Grantees will be permitted to publish in so-called hybrid journals, which charge a subscription but make some articles free to view, but only if the journal has committed to transform into a fully open access model….”