Tag Archives: Open Access

Versita launches new program of Open Access journals amongst others in Life Sciences and Chemistry

Versita launches new program of Open Access journals amongst others in Life Sciences and Chemistry

Academic publisher Versita announced today the launch of a new program of Open Access journals. 100 Emerging Science Journals are being launched in 2012. The program’s focus is on young and rapidly developing fields of science, which have not yet been covered by a designated journal. The emerging topics have been identified in Life Sciences, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Mathematics.

Publisher of PLoS ONE moves to new Open-Access initiative

Publisher of PLoS ONE moves to new Open-Access initiative

Peter Binfield leaves PLoS ONE to start PeerJ.

After four years of dedicated service and steady leadership, Peter Binfield, Publisher of PLoS ONE, will be leaving us on May 18th.  Under his stewardship, PLoS ONE has grown into the largest peer reviewed journal in the world. In the process, PLoS ONE has pioneered new editorial models that are being widely adopted by many publishers.  We part on the best of terms – Pete is leaving to start his own company, and so we wish him well in this new Open Access Initiative.

PeerJ

PeerJ

A new open access publishing model starts in Fall 2012. 

PeerJ is establishing a new sustainability model. Researchers will be able to purchase Lifetime Memberships, starting at just $99, giving them the rights to publish their articles in our peer reviewed journal. All published articles are made freely available to the public. Subscription fees made sense in a pre-Internet world, but now they just slow the progress of science. It’s time to change that.

Public sector saves £28 million through open access, but much greater rewards to come, says report

Public sector saves £28 million through open access, but much greater rewards to come, says report

The UK public sector spends £135 million a year, made up of subscriptions and time spent trying to find articles, accessing the journal papers it needs to perform effectively. Each extra 5% of journal papers accessed via open access on the web would save the public purse £1.7 million, even if no subscription fees were to be saved. 

The UK’s valuable voluntary and charitable sector would also benefit from open access to academic research. For survey respondents, the two most frequently mentioned barriers to accessing research were cost (80%) and lack of time (46%).

The Evolution of Science: Open publishing

The Evolution of Science: Open publishing

Oxford, Rodes House: An outstanding group of people debates publicly ’The Scientific Evolution: Open Science and the Future of Publishing’.

The diverse panel included publishers, funders, academics and entrepreneurs: Tim Gowers the Fields Medal winning mathematician, Victor Henning the co-founder and CEO of Mendeley, Robert Kiley from The Welcome Trust, Alison Mitchell from Nature Publishing Group, Cameron Neylon the open science activist and blogger, Lord Robert Winston the advocate of public engagement, and Alicia Wise from the publisher Elsevier. The event was organised by Victoria Watson and Simon Benjamin, and Simon also chaired it.

Wikipedia Academy: Research and Free Knowledge.

Wikipedia Academy: Research and Free Knowledge.

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.

The next revolution in Science: Open Access will open new ways to measure scientific output

The next revolution in Science: Open Access will open new ways to measure scientific output

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.

Google Scholar Metrics

Google Scholar Metrics

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

eLife

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.

Trust Acts to Open Research Findings to the Public

Trust Acts to Open Research Findings to the Public

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.