Monthly Archives: March 2021

Plan S Information – ACS Open Science

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“From January 2021, there are some changes for ACS authors funded by certain members of?cOAlition S. You may be required to make sure that you publish your work immediately open access under a CC-BY license. ACS offers a wide range of options enabling our authors to comply with these requirements through?publication in a fully open access journal or a gold open access option in all our hybrid journals. In addition, your institution may have signed an ACS Read + Publish Agreement that provides funding for open access publishing. See below for more information regarding these changes.”

 

Civil society statement supporting WTO TRIPS waiver proposal | EIFL

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“EIFL and partner consortia in Kenya, Lesotho, Lithuania, Uganda and Zimbabwe joined over 250 organizations, prominent researchers and copyright experts calling for a reduction of copyright barriers to COVID-19 prevention, containment and treatment at the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

The statement by global civil society groups and prominent researchers focuses particular attention on the need to include copyright rules within the waiver….”

Statement on Copyright and Proposal of a Waiver from Certain Provisions of the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19 (IP/C/W/669)

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“We support the work and interests of millions of researchers, educators, libraries, archives and museums around the world who are contributing to the prevention, containment and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic through promotion of access to knowledge. We applaud the efforts of World Trade Organization (WTO) Members to address copyright barriers to an equitable response to COVID-19. Access to copyrighted works, in addition to patents and know-how, is needed to prevent and contain COVID-19 and to develop treatments. COVID-19 has aggravated deep inequalities in access to knowledge. In some countries with flexible copyright systems, residents are able to access and use essential materials in remote educational, learning and research activities, virtually access and use the collections of libraries and other institutions, and contribute to research on treatments using advanced processes such as text and data mining. But these activities are not taking place everywhere because they are not lawful everywhere….”

The MIT Press launches new open access collection of 34 classic architecture and urban studies titles | The MIT Press

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“Today, the MIT Press launched MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books, on their digital book platform MIT Press Direct. The collection was funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Humanities Open Book Program, which they co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities….”

Calls Intensify to Allow Libraries to Narrow Digital Divide – Internet Archive Blogs

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“At an event discussing disinformation and the digital divide, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon said he was committed to supporting a balanced copyright system that promotes fair use, digital lending, and the work of libraries.

“Libraries provide vital public services by making high quality resources available to everybody. And that’s true no matter what you’ve got in your bank account or your zip code,” said Wyden, noting he is the son of a librarian.  “If the system is filled with draconian copyright laws and digital restrictions that make it hard for real news to be read, shared, and discussed, that particular vacuum is filled with more misinformation and lies.” …”

Hiring now open for Research Data Analyst role

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“We’re looking for a Research Data Analyst to join our team to lead investigation into the hidden costs and current funding patterns of open infrastructure. This role is made possible due to support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. More information about the Research Data Analyst role can be found below and on our Jobs page. …”

Principles of open, transparent and reproducible science in author guidelines of sleep research and chronobiology journals

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Abstract:  Background: “Open science” is an umbrella term describing various aspects of transparent and open science practices. The adoption of practices at different levels of the scientific process (e.g., individual researchers, laboratories, institutions) has been rapidly changing the scientific research landscape in the past years, but their uptake differs from discipline to discipline. Here, we asked to what extent journals in the field of sleep research and chronobiology encourage or even require following transparent and open science principles in their author guidelines.

Methods: We scored the author guidelines of a comprehensive set of 27 sleep and chronobiology journals, including the major outlets in the field, using the standardised Transparency and Openness (TOP) Factor. The TOP Factor is a quantitative summary of the extent to which journals encourage or require following various aspects of open science, including data citation, data transparency, analysis code transparency, materials transparency, design and analysis guidelines, study pre-registration, analysis plan pre-registration, replication, registered reports, and the use of open science badges.

Results: Across the 27 journals, we find low values on the TOP Factor (median [25 th, 75 th percentile] 3 [1, 3], min. 0, max. 9, out of a total possible score of 29) in sleep research and chronobiology journals.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest an opportunity for sleep research and chronobiology journals to further support recent developments in transparent and open science by implementing transparency and openness principles in their author guidelines.

AAUP Addresses Opposition to Copyright Exemption for Researchers | AAUP

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“On March 10, 2021, the AAUP signed onto a reply comment addressing opposition to its previously submitted long-form comment seeking an exemption from a prohibition on circumventing technological protection measures for text and data mining (TDM) of lawfully accessed motion pictures and lawfully accessed literary works distributed electronically….

The AAUP continues to support the exemption because faculty and academic researchers are and will continue to be adversely affected in their ability to make fair use of motion pictures and literary works if they are prohibited from accessing certain classes of works. The AAUP is delighted to be working with the Berkeley Clinic for the first time.”

inos-project.eu | open and citizen science – active learning approaches – higher education

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“TOP REASONS TO FOLLOW INOS

Learn about the social impact of Universities as knowledge creation, sharing and (re-) use ecosystems in the digital economy. Our report on this topic will identify how universities can better meet demand for civic engagement, public participation and societal impact.
Find out when we publish our learning-design framework: a guide for designing open and citizen science activities in a pedagogically sound way.
Join one of our 12 Open Knowledge events. Through datathons, service jams, Dotmocracy workshops, knowledge cafés and other formats, we’ll teach academic and library staff and students about contemporary trends in open and citizen science.
Come innovate with us! We’ll connect open and citizen science with innovation inside and outside universities through eight events, including hackathons, fablabs, game labs, innovation sprints and Futurefactories.
Upgrade your university’s curriculum. We’re supporting universities to include open and citizen science in teaching practices by creating teaching, learning and training resources based on active learning….”

INOS Workshop Outcomes – Open and Citizen Science in Higher Education: Co-Creating a Shared Vision  – LIBER Europe

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“On the 16th of March 2021, we held the first of our two-part vision-building workshop series titled ‘Open and Citizen Science in Higher Education: Co-Creating a Shared Vision’. The workshop was designed to inspire participants to think systematically, share their experiences, challenges, and to jointly find solutions to the commonly identified obstacles when it comes to implementing Open and Citizen Science. 37 staff/faculty members and students from libraries and universities attended and discussed citizen science practices at their institutions and how these practices could be possibly adopted to serve as models practices for other Higher Education Institutions (HEI). …”

Reflections on the OA Diamond Journals Study | Plan S

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“Earlier this month, cOAlition S and Science Europe published an in-depth study of diamond open access journals, so called because they charge neither author(s) nor readers. The study comes in five parts, each of which can be a lot to digest. What I thought I’d try and do with this post was to pick some of the highlights from the study findings.

The first sensible question everyone always asks about diamond OA is: how? How can a journal afford to sustainably operate if it charges neither readers nor author(s)? The findings report reveals that there are a great variety of organisations that are willing to financially support the operation of diamond OA journals including universities, museums, government agencies, and learned societies. One I am familiar with is the European Journal of Taxonomy (est. 2011) which is financially supported by a consortium of ten European natural history institutions across seven different countries. Each year it publishes roughly a hundred articles and remains a well-regarded journal in taxonomy. To take a different example, the excellent Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry (est. 2005) is financially supported by the Beilstein Institute for the Advancement of Chemical Science, a German non-profit foundation. It makes sense for organisations to take on these costs and they are highly manageable.

The second question people tend to ask is, what about the costs? How can organisations afford to financially support journals, isn’t it costly? The report reveals that diamond OA journals tend to be run in a very economically efficient manner – one of the most obvious distinguishing factors here is the use of open source software. By using OJS, Lodel, Janeway, or some other open source system there is no recurrent charge owed to license expensive proprietary publishing platforms such as Silverchair or Literatum or RVHost that are more typical of commercial paywalled or APC-OA journals. The study’s survey found that over 60% of diamond OA journals reported annual costs in the previous year under $/€10,000, including in-kind contributions. …

Fascinatingly, we don’t even have a firm grip on just how many diamond OA journals there are out there on the world wide web. A key result from the study is the estimate that there are between 17,000 to 29,000 diamond OA journals currently in existence. The majority are small-scale and annually publish just 23 articles, compared to 25 articles (by median) for APC-OA journals. Yet collectively, by article volume diamond OA accounts for an impressive 8-9% of the total number of scholarly journal articles published per year, a close rival to the 10-11% of articles that are published in APC-OA journals. Diamond open access, at the article-level thus comprises 44% of all articles that are in fully open access journals – a significant and perhaps hugely underappreciated force in open access journal publishing….”

The Louvre Has Digitized 482,000 Works — Wander The Museum Online, For Free : NPR

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“One of the world’s most massive museums has announced an encompassing digitization of its vast collection.

“The Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known,” said Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre, in a statement on Friday. “For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free, whether they are on display in the museum, on loan, even long-term, or in storage.” 

Some of this is hyperbole. The entire collection is so huge, no one even knows how big it is. The Louvre’s official release estimates about 482,000 works have been digitized in its collections database, representing about three quarters of the entire archive. (The museum’s recently revamped homepage is designed for more casual visitors, especially those on cellphones, with translations in Spanish, English and Chinese.) …”

scite: a smart citation index that displays the context of citations and classifies their intent using deep learning | bioRxiv

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Abstract:  Citation indices are tools used by the academic community for research and research evaluation which aggregate scientific literature output and measure scientific impact by collating citation counts. Citation indices help measure the interconnections between scientific papers but fall short because they only display paper titles, authors, and the date of publications, and fail to communicate contextual information about why a citation was made. The usage of citations in research evaluation without due consideration to context can be problematic, if only because a citation that disputes a paper is treated the same as a citation that supports it. To solve this problem, we have used machine learning and other techniques to develop a “smart citation index” called scite, which categorizes citations based on context. Scite shows how a citation was used by displaying the surrounding textual context from the citing paper, and a classification from our deep learning model that indicates whether the statement provides supporting or disputing evidence for a referenced work, or simply mentions it. Scite has been developed by analyzing over 23 million full-text scientific articles and currently has a database of more than 800 million classified citation statements. Here we describe how scite works and how it can be used to further research and research evaluation.