Opening up access to academic research will put more data and power in the hands of the people who pay for it.
The Guardian.
Harvard University spends $3.75 million on academic journal subscriptions.
Time Techland.
Software is a cornerstone of science. Without software, twenty-first century science would be impossible. Without better software, science cannot progress. But the culture and institutions of science have not yet adjusted to this reality. Source code must remain available, linked to related materials, for the useful lifetime of the publication.
Manifesto, Endorse, Discussion.
The free online Encyclopedia Wikipedia answers questions of millions of users every day. Wikipedia’s mere existence, growth, (social and technical) functioning and quality also raises an enormous number of research questions. The “Wikipedia Academy 2012: Research and Free Knowledge” provides a platform for the research community and the Wikipedia community to connect, present, discuss and advance research on Wikipedia in particular and on free knowledge in general.
OpenScienceFramework sees itself as open collaboration of scientists. The OSF aims to increase the alignment between scientific values and scientific practices, also to develop tools and infrastructure and to conduct research about scientific practices.
The world of university research has long been held to ransom by academic publishers charging exorbitant prices for subscriptions – but that may all be about to end.
The Guardian.
As more than 10,000 scientists pledge to boycott Elsevier on the Cost of Knowledge website, its creator looks to the future.
The Guardian.
Major Periodical Subscriptions Cannot Be Sustained.
Harvard University. The Harvard Library Transition.
Digital Agenda Assembly.
A new online platform to discuss the digital agenda.
Compared with the current practices, all of which are based on citations only, the inclusion of altmetrics plus online usage statistics and post-publication peer-review in an open access world will represent a true revolution in the way that science is perceived by all, scientists included.
OAPEN is pleased to announce the launch of the Directory of Open Access Books (www.doabooks.org), a discovery service for peer reviewed books published under an Open Access license. DOAB provides a searchable index to the information about these books, with links to the full texts of the publications at the publisher’s website or repository.
Google Scholar Metrics provide an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications. While most researchers are familiar with the well-established journals in their field, that is often not the case with newer publications or publications in related fields - there’re simply too many of them to keep track of! Scholar Metrics summarize recent citations to many publications, to help authors as they consider where to publish their new research.
eLife is a researcher-driven initiative for the very best in science and science communication. We promote rapid, fair, and more constructive review. We will use digital media and open access to increase the influence of published works. We commit to serving authors and advancing careers in science.
Academic publishers do not pay peer reviewers, and lack of funds is no bar to publication in an open access journal.
Another New York Times article:
The trend toward open access scientific publishing gained strength last week when the Wellcome Trust, the second-largest nongovernmental funder of scientific research in the world, said it was considering sanctions against scientists who do not make the results of their research freely available to the public.
Alejandro and I sat down for an interview with Seth Cooper, the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington. Dr. Cooper spoke during TEDMED about the power of play and the role that games can play in dealing with scientific challenges.
With its recent launch of Light: Science and Applications, an open access (OA) physical sciences journal, and several more OA specialist publications planned for this year, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is moving forward with its plan to include this publishing model in the center of its business. Though not every NPG journal is fair game for open access, it seems – top-tier publications will remain under a subscription-based model – specialist titles may be a place for further expansion as open access continues to develop.
Polish Prime Minister Office yesterday accepted “Digital School program” with “Digital Textbooks” component included. With 45 million PLN (approx. 15 million USD) funding it has been the biggest governmental Open Educational Resources initiative in Poland so far. The government has decided to fund creating full set of educational materials for grades 4-6 (9-11 year olds). All those resources will be available under CC BY license, which is fully free license according to the Definition of Free Cultural Works.
What is open science? Well, I think of it as talking regularly about my unpublished research on the Internet, generally in my blog or on some other persistent, explicitly public forum. It should be done regularly, and it should be done with a certain amount of depth or self-reflection. (See, for example, the wunnerful Rosie Redfield andNature’s commentary on her blogging of the arsenic debacle & tests thereof.)
Happend a couple of days ago. Missed it. Interesting idea. We will see what happens.
If you’ve heard of Kickstarter, you know it’s a popular way for bands, filmmakers, and other creative types to harness their fanbase for funding. Now Petridish wants to be the Kickstarter for science.