News blog

Half of 2011 papers now free to read

Search the Internet for any research article published in 2011, and you have a 50–50 chance of downloading it for free. This claim — made in a report1 produced for the European Commission — suggests that many more research papers are openly available online than was previously thought. The finding, released on 21 August, is heartening news for advocates of open access. But some experts are raising their eyebrows at the high numbers.


Nature News.

If someone hits a paywall in the forest, does it make a sound?: The Open Access Button

This idea was a browser-based tool which tracks how often readers are denied access to academic research, where in the world they were or their profession and why they were looking for that research. The tool would aggregate this information into one place and would create a real time, worldwide, interactive picture of the problem.


PLOS Blogs.

‘Open’ as the default modus operandi for research and higher education

is a policy paper by SURF (a collaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch higher education and research) commissioned by the European Commission about open access to content and infrastructure. This was done within the e-InfraNet project. (...) European opinion leaders and experts examined the context, motivations, developments and results of each of the ‘Opens’, revealing a collection of joint benefits and issues. Their study resulted in the recommendation for a coordinated policy approach, able to benefit all forms of ‘Open’.
Download Summary here.  

OPEN ACCESS TO CODE: EGU journal implements new requirement for authors to provide computer code of their models

The new policies include the requirement that, from now on, authors must provide the actual computer code of their models to the reviewers or editor as part of the review process. Furthermore, authors are required to include a section in the paper itself discussing the availability of their code to the wider community. If the authors choose not to make their code available to the community, then they must describe the reasons for this.

Library and repository communities join together to identify new competencies for academic librarians

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), and the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) are pleased to announce the launch of a Joint Task Force on Librarians’ Competencies in Support of E-Research and Scholarly Communication.

THE FUTURE OF OPEN KNOWLEDGE: WHAT IMPACT WILL OPEN KNOWLEDGE HAVE ON RESEARCH, THE ECONOMY AND THE PUBLIC?

To mark the launch of the Open Knowledge Foundation in Australia, founder Dr Rufus Pollock is touring Australia. His "Open Knowledge Down Under" tour will take in several capital cities and includes a series of public lectures. The focus of the Sydney lecture will be to talk about the impact of open knowledge on research, the economy and the public. Whilst this is a global initiative, it will include specific focus on the impact in Australia.
Registration is free and open: Monday, 26 August 2013 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EST), Camperdown, NSW, Auditorium, Eastern Avenue,The University of Sydney.

Open access peer-reviewed Journals

Check out these publication modes! Both websites offer open access to peer-reviewed articles you can submit via calls or as contributor.
  • Sensate Journal . A Journal for Experiments in Critical Media Practice. Sensate Journal calls itself a peer-reviewed, open-access, media-based journal for the creation, presentation, and critique of innovative projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Read a review on that here.
  • Internet Policy Review.  This Journal is a news and analysis service about internet regulation in Europe. The Internet Policy Review tracks public regulatory changes as well as private policy developments which are expected to have long lasting impacts on European societies. The idea is that the IPR offers resources and research that will add a layer of knowledge to current debates on internet policy. In a word, IPR’s expertise resides in its clear and independent analysis of inter-European digital policy changes. At present, we are looking for authors wanting to commit to a series of articles related to one particular internet policy issue, as well as guest contributors. We are looking for analysis articles which either draw on research or make links with recent research.

Beyond Property Rights: Thinking About Moral Definitions of Openness

Referring to the idea of Sunil Abraham, founder and executive director of the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) in India, David Eaves points out that the spectrum of openness actually extends well beyond the variants typically encountered in the West.
Conversations about open knowledge outside the supposedly settled lands of the 'rich' often stretch beyond permission-based 'fair use' and 'creative commons' approaches. There is a desire to explore potential moral rights to use 'content' in addition to just property rights that may be granted under statutes.

Gateways for Open Science

“Science is really ripe for disruption. A lot of the practices are still very much rooted in their analog beginnings.” That is how Kaitlin Thaney, Director of the Mozilla Science Lab—a new open science initiative focused on innovation, best practice, and skills training for research—began her plenary talk at XSEDE13 in San Diego last month.

Fixing the Flaw in OA Mandates That Have Opt-Outs

Stevan Harnard, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal, holding the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Sciences and is also Affiliate Professor in Electronics and Computer Science at University of Southampton, UK on the Open Access Mandate by the University of California:
Yes, there's a flaw in the University of California Open Access (OA) mandate ["Open Contradictions," Editorial, The Daily Californian, 12 Aug 2013], and, yes, it has to do with the fact that U of C authors can opt out of compliance with the mandate.
See also Michael Eisen's comment on the OA policies of the University of California.

Gateways for Open Science

Even without concrete solutions, Frachioni remains enthusiastic about the possibilities of open science. “This is all completely unprecedented, and that isn’t going to give us any reassurance at the end of the day,” he said, “but I think that it’s our responsibility to enter into this knowing that and knowing that we should do it anyway.”
Elizabeth Murray, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

John Wilbanks‘ Understanding of Open Science

Open might mean public domain, or liberal licensing, or just not withholding. Open needs to be reconciled with privacy (an under-acknowledged challenge). And it needs technical infrastructure, policy infrastructure, boundary organizations, and new norms to flourish.
As a senior fellow at FasterCures, chief commons officer at Sage Bionetworks, data commons expert and advocate John Wilbanks aims to advance the conversation about the term "Open Science" and its different facets. (Read more...)

Introducing Open Economics Principles

The Open Economics Working Group would like to introduce the Open Economics Principles, a Statement on Openness of Economic Data and Code. A year and a half ago the Open Economics project began with a mission of becoming central point of reference and support for those interested in open economic data. In the process of identifying examples and ongoing barriers for opening up data and code for the economics profession, we saw the need to present a statement on the guiding principles of transparency and accountability in economics that would enable replication and scholarly debate as well as access to knowledge as a public good.

Free and open access to all scientific publications at University of California

The Academic Senate of the University of California passed an Open Access Policy on July 24, 2013, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made available to the public at no charge. The policy covers more than 8,000 UC faculty and as many as 40,000 publications a year. By granting a license to the University of California prior to any contractual arrangement with publishers, faculty members can now make their research widely and publicly available, re-use it for various purposes, or modify it for future research publications. Faculty on three campuses (UCLA, UCI and UCSF) will begin depositing articles in eScholarship on November 1, 2013. Progress on deposit implementation will be reviewed during the following year. Deposit of articles by faculty on the remaining campuses is expected to begin on November 1, 2014.