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World wide web creator sees open access future for academic publishing

Activists pushing for free, open access to academic papers will eventually defeat publishers who seek to lock scholarly findings behind paywalls, the founder of the world wide web said today. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who revolutionised the way we access information on the internet through the creation of the world wide web over 20 years ago, has been a vocal proponent for making data freely available while also protecting people’s privacy.

Academics revolt over open access

They bodies blamed lack of consultation on the policy and said the “author processing charge” institutions will now pay to publish their academics’ work increased financial burden on British universities. The letter also argued that the policy had been formed in response to the science, technology and engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and more consultation and “far fuller scrutiny” was needed by the government for the social sciences, arts and humanities (HSS) sector.

And This is Why We Should Always Provide Our Data. . .

For a long time now, I’ve been beating the drum of “provide your data.” If you’re willing to take take a whole mess of measurements and do a whole bunch of analyses for a published paper, why not share the raw data? New techniques and research questions continually arise, so it can be invaluable for other workers to be able to draw upon previously published databases. Although the situation is improving, it’s still far from perfect. Even today, I’m somewhat embarrassed to point out that some articles in PLOS ONE (a journal whose mission I support as advocate and volunteer academic editor) don’t provide relevant supporting data (recent examples here and here). But rather than dwell on the negatives, I want to point out a recent case study (also in PLOS ONE!) where data reuse benefited authors, journals, and science as a whole.
PLOS Blogs (Andrew Farke).

Is it immoral to hide your research behind a paywall?

As noted a few days ago, I recently had an article published on the Guardian site entitled Hiding your research behind a paywall is immoral. The reaction to that article was fascinating, exhilarating and distressing in fairly equal parts. Fascinating because it generated a fertile stream of 156 comments, most of them substantial. Exhilarating because of some very positive responses. And distressing because some people who I like and respect absolutely hated it. 

The Open Knowledge Foundation asks for help to cultivate the digital commons

At the Open Knowledge Foundation we work to cultivate a global commons of digital material that everyone is free to use and enjoy. This digital commons includes everything from open data about carbon emissions or spending from governments around the world; to open access research in the sciences, the humanities, and many otherdisciplines; to public domain works from galleries, libraries, archives and museums.

Open Access Monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences Conference

Date: 1 and 2 July 2013
Location: The British Library, London, UK
JISC Collections, in partnership with OAPEN Foundation, is holding a two-day international conference intended for all stakeholders in scholarly communications including European research funders, senior institutional managers, publishers, learned societies, librarians and researchers. The conference aims to raise awareness of open access, to increase understanding of key challenges and to identify where international common policies and frameworks could support the adoption of open access monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

Open Peer Review for the Humanities

HWPP is an online space for scholars to share works-in-progress with their peers.  After uploading a conference paper, essay, or article manuscript to the HWPP website, authors can invite others to read their work and make comments in the margins.  As more people respond, writers get more feedback.  But, unlike traditional comments done on paper, HWPP allows commenters and authors to interact with each other.

What is ScienceOnlineTEEN?

We plan to bring scientists of all ages together with students and teachers, from the beginners to the experts, to discuss a variety of topics related to science communication in education and technology. We will do this through engaging, casual conversations. ScienceOnlineTeen is not a conference; it is an unconference based off of the original ScienceOnline conference. ScienceOnline2013, the seventh annual conference exploring science on the Web, will take place Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2013, in Raleigh, NC.

Open Science – Investigating parameters for participation

Do you want to practice open science?
At the moment I am working on a research design that helps me investigating parameters for participation in open science. The design is, to be honest, not cut in stone yet and my methodological ideas change every now and then. Nonetheless, I documented my overall ideas for a research design in an open 1.5 pages document, accessible via Google Docs (this link). If you have a few minutes free on your hand and interest in the topic, I invite you to scim through the document and leave comments if you have any good thoughts, ideas, criticism and suggestions.