Platforms: access, participation and publishing

Three arguments for open access. Today!

29 May 2013, 6-8pm, UCL, Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY.

Confirmed speakers:

  • Dr Mike Taylor, Earth Sciences, University of Bristol and The Guardian
  • Professor Johnny Golding, Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art, Director, Centre for Fine Art Research, Birmingham City University
  • Dr Rathna Ramanathan, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design

Biomedical journal and publisher hope to bring preprints to life : Nature Medicine : Nature Publishing Group

Harold Varmus is still waiting for the revolution. In a 1999 proposal he later described as a “manifesto,” the then director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested creating an electronic repository to host freely accessible research papers, including manuscripts prior to their formal publication. The next year, a version of Varmus’s proposal spawned PubMed Central, a digital archive where all papers stemming from NIH-funded research must be submitted within 12 months of publication. However, the agency never created one key aspect of Varmus’ ultimate vision: a preprint portal.
Nature Medicine.

Open access in the Arab world: Sulieman AlShuhri and the Arab Initiatives of Open Access

While searching for Arabic content on open access, I found the Arab Initiatives in Open Access blog, which is moderated by Dr. Sulieman AlShuhri, Amal AlSalem, Dr. Abdel-Rahman Farrag, and Dr. Ramadan Elaiess. The blog not only covers recent developments in the open access field, but also delivers its content in Arabic.
In collaboration with the Arab initiatives of Open Access blog ( aioa.blogspot.com),QScience presents Sulieman AlShuhri, AIOA founder, Asst. Professor at Al-Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Saudi Arabia and e-DocsLab research fellow. Sulieman speaks about the AIOA blog, about open access, and about the benefits of publishing in open access. The video transcripts (English andArabic Transcript) can be found below. Note that the video is in Arabic with English subtitles.

FUTURE OF OPEN SCIENCE : Futurium – European Commission: Co-create the Future.

 
On 31st of May 2013 (1 PM Brussels time / CET), as part of the “Future Fridays” series of webinars on Futurium, Cameron Neylon, Advocacy Director atPLOS presents his vision of the Future of Open Science.
Participation to all webinars is free and open to all who are interested in the subject. The webinar will take place entirely online in a virtual room.

American Scientist Online

Proteins are involved in how our bodies develop and fight disease as well as how we behave and how we sense the world around us. Genes are instructions for making proteins, each of which is made up of some combination of building-block molecules called amino acids. Proteins can be hundreds of amino acids long, so they are complex and difficult to study. Although protein sequencing to find out the order of the amino acids in a particular protein is pretty easy for a biochemist, it is not simple for a biochemist to figure out all the possible shapes those amino acids can fold into. Foldit is a popular online citizen-science game, in which players are scored on the structure of proteins that they’ve folded. In Foldit puzzles, for example, players are rewarded for solving clashes and voids, places where the protein is not consistent with known biochemical patterns.
AmSci.

March for public investment and open data

A claim PRO open seed data for better science on nutrition security, sustainability and food systems.
(…) companies need not worry about releasing data about specific genetic traits that bring them profits, but simply the data that could help university scientists improve nutritional conditions for the poor. (…) March for the public investment into agricultural biotechnology research and an open data policy on industry seed research.

ICSU, International Council for Science consults membership on open access

Seeking to clarify its position on the related issues of open access publication of scientific literature and evaluation of research by metrics, ICSU has reached out to its membership organizations for their input. The results of this process may lead to corresponding resolutions being proposed to the General Assembly in September 2014.
ICSU has asked its members to comment in general on these interrelated issues, and specifically in relation to the following questions:
  1. What requirements do funders of research in your country or subject area currently make, or plan to make, as regards open access publication, including open access to data? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in such open access requirements, whether in your country/subject area or elsewhere?
  2. To what extent are metrics being used to evaluate universities, departments and individuals in your country or subject area, what metrics are used, and how are these influencing publication trends and incentives for researchers?
  3. What useful role, if any, do you think ICSU can play in these matters?

Elsevier distances itself from open-access article

The publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states.
See the comment by Mike Taylor beyond the article mentioned above and also see this blog post by Peter Suber, who will start as Harvard’s director of the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) from July 1, 2013. Information Today reports on this topic as well, revealing the network behind it.

Re-using images in scientific papers

According to Retraction Watch (where it says: “It’s not clear whether these alleged manipulations are central to the claims of the paper. We’ll keep an eye on this and update as we learn more from Cell.”) , the human embryonic stem cell cloning paper in Cell by the Mitalipov Lab (I blogged about it here last week) cropped and reused some images, a potentially major issue.
See also the discussion by the peers of the paper where you can also see the images (figures) that the peers refer to. This post looks on image-use in scientific papers including a museum’s perspective.

New online tool for collaborative academic writing: Fiduswriter

Fidus Writer is an online collaborative editor especially made for academics who need to use citations and/or formulas. The editor focuses on the content rather than the layout, so that with the same text, you can later on publish it in multiple ways: On a website, as a printed book, or as an ebook. In each case, you can choose from a number of layouts that are adequate for the medium of choice.
Login to try out the Beta Version (works only in Google Chrome or Chromium). Check also the tutorials.

What is impact?

 Metrics are very important. They decide who gets hired and promoted, help us judge the value of research that’s funded, and what new research gets funding. However, it’s important to recognize that impact measures – whether citations, downloads, tweets or shares – shouldn’t be confused with the kind of scientific impact that matters most.

Apotheosis of cynicism and deceit from scholarly publishers

Michael Eisen on the Association of American Publishers’ reaction on the open access movement.
 the AAP’s defense of the status quo has descended to new depths: (…)  a letter sent last week to the California Assembly opposing AB609, which would provide the public with access to state funded research.