Friday 27 January 2012

Connotea: Bookmarks matching tag oa.new (50 items)

Connotea: Bookmarks matching tag oa.new (50 items)


Opinion: Occupy Science? | The Scientist

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:22 AM PST

 
Opinion: Occupy Science? | The Scientist
the-scientist.com
"The robustness of the knowledge network will depend on social connections—on the relationships, rules, and forms of trust that hold it together. Far from “barriers” to be removed, these are connections that must be built. This has been well demonstrated by some citizen science projects, which stand or fall on the strength of the social networks that underlie them. Though far from perfect, these projects begin to sketch the outlines of an altered social contract between science and society—one that is open, participatory, and dependent on the collective energy of the community....By seeing how their contributions are used, participants would gain a window into knowledge-in-progress, opening the black box of research to reveal just how far there is to go, and that getting there depends on a collective effort...."

Digital Textbooks Go Straight From Scientists to Students

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:15 AM PST

 
Digital Textbooks Go Straight From Scientists to Students
Dave Mosher
Wired Science, (26 Jan 2012)
"The first interactive marine science textbook for the iPad is called Cachalot (French for “sperm whale”). It’s a free, app-based book that covers the latest science of marine megafauna like whales, dolphins and seals with expert-contributed text, images and open-access studies. Through a digital publication system called FLOW, the book also offers students note-taking tools, Twitter integration, Wolfram|Alpha search and even National Geographic “critter cam” videos...."

Abdulrahman El-Sayed: SOPA's Killer Cousin You've Probably Never Heard About

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:14 AM PST

 
Abdulrahman El-Sayed: SOPA's Killer Cousin You've Probably Never Heard About
www.huffingtonpost.com
"Consider, for example, a recent conversation I shared in an Alexandria hospital with Dr. Salah, an Egyptian surgeon. When he found out I was American he proclaimed "God bless America for Pubmed" -- the National Library of Medicine's online search engine for health research. But that may soon come to an end. A recent bill, the "Research Works Act", proposed under pressure from the Association of American Publishers, threatens to strangle access to health research to protect the interests of a few greedy corporations -- it would keep crucial, life-saving information from doctors and scientists who use it to take care of people and contribute to knowledge....What's worse, the heaviest burden of this insidious bill, if passed, would fall on the poor and underserved. At home, it would keep crucial medical information from doctors who serve low-income patients and who can't afford the steep subscription costs. In low-income countries abroad, it would choke off doctors and scientists who rely on NIH-funded research to improve the lives and wellbeing of billions of people...."

OA Advocacy: How students, student organizations and student governments can get involved | EIFL

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 04:14 PM PST

 
OA Advocacy: How students, student organizations and student governments can get involved | EIFL
www.eifl.net
"Please join us for a conversation with Nick Shockey, Director, Right to Research Coalition and Director of Student Advocacy, SPARC...."

EU ACTA Chief Resigns In Disgust Over Disrespect At Citizens; Next Steps - Falkvinge on Infopolicy

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 04:12 PM PST

 
EU ACTA Chief Resigns In Disgust Over Disrespect At Citizens; Next Steps - Falkvinge on Infopolicy
falkvinge.net
"This just in: the European Parliament’s rapporteur of the ACTA agreement...just quit in disgust over how the whole process has been designed to keep citizens and lawmakers in the dark. From the website of La Quadrature, which quotes and translates Numérama interviewing Kader Arif, former rapporteur for ACTA: ”I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament’s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.” ...I’ve never seen words this strong from a Member of European Parliament before. He’s essentially saying that parliament was deliberately kept in the dark – this description comes very close to describing a coup d’état."

Panton Fellowhips

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 02:40 PM PST

 
Panton Fellowhips
groups.google.com
The Open Knowledge Foundation (OFKN)... “is delighted to announce the launch of the Panton Fellowships! Funded by the Open Society Institute, two Panton Fellowships will be awarded to scientists who actively promote open data in science... The Fellowships are open to all, and would particularly suit graduate students and early-stage career scientists... Panton Fellows may wish to explore solutions for making data 
open, facilitate discussion, and catalyse the open science community... Full details can be found at [Panton Principles]( http://pantonprinciples.org/panton-fellowships/). You can also see

Selected Reading on Research Works Act – Why You Should Care?

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 02:35 PM PST

 
Selected Reading on Research Works Act – Why You Should Care?
Katarina Lovrecic
InTechWeb Blog, (25 Jan 2012)
“[The] Research Works Act was introduced to the White House, it now has a wiki page, and as Michael Eisen puts it, “its text is simple and odious... Please see... selected readings from open access community members that... ask for funded research to be openly accessible and for the affirmation that no library, no matter how big, is immune to such access crisis, that no business can flourish in an internet era if open access is discredited, that no researcher should remain non judgmental on such assault at those actively involved in the open access movement. As the battle continues, feel free to speak out , or sign the petition  (not limited to US citizens)...”

Open access journals in Computer Science

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 02:31 PM PST

 
Open access journals in Computer Science
lemire.me
“Open access journals make articles freely available. Some of them even allow the authors to keep the copyright of their work. It would seem that they offer a compelling alternative to traditional journals, especially if you hope to reach to people outside academia... The directory of open access journals gives a list of over 300 open access journals in Computer Science. However, there are a few sore points...Indexing of open access Computer Science journal is generally weak... indexes are important in Computer Science such as DBLP and the ACM Digital Library. Scopus is also often used by hiring and promotion committees... I could find only two open access journals indexed by ACM... And, of course, no ACM publication is open access. Quite clearly, ACM is doing little to help open access... Many open access Computer Science journals require complete copyright transfer... When reviewing open access journals in Computer Science, I see that several of them inexplicably require complete copyright transfer...”

Opening Science or Closing It: How to Beat the Odds

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 02:26 PM PST

 
Opening Science or Closing It: How to Beat the Odds
Opening Science or Closing It
Michael Tobis
Planet3.0, (25 Jan 2012)
“Nobody is yelling at anyone to stop the presses in observing the remarkable fact that Planet3.0 and Watt’s Up With That were allies in the recent internet uprising against the egregious internet-bashing legislation pushed by the entertainment industry in the US Congress... The SOPA legislation had been considered inevitable. Representatives ‘on both sides of the aisle’...had been duly sponsored by Hollywood... Are the internet-threatened Hollywood interests anything like the science-threatened fossil fuel interests? That’s a pretty loose comparison... There are a couple of reasons that their accusations carry weight... These have to do with the self-interests of the scientific community and of the scientific publishing industry... [In] the scientific community...you need to achieve tenure at a top-flight institution...[In the] scientific publishing industry...Public discussion of science on the internet is, like so much else, hampered by unreasonable demands placed by copyright holders... Openness should be at the center of science, and an Open Access movement within the scientific community, recognizing the availability of new distribution mechanisms, is actively promoting dramatic change in this regard. A great step forward was taken by a major funding agency in the US, the Public Access Policy of the National Institutes of Health which requires that all NIH funded publications be made publicly accessible within twelve months after publication. The journal publishers of course are immensely threatened by this Their response?... The instrument is the proposed Research Works Act. Wikipedia’s summary states that ‘The bill contains provisions to prohibit open access mandates for federally funded research and effectively reverts the NIH’s Public Access Policy that allows taxpayer-funded research to be freely accessible online. If enacted, it would also severely restrict the sharing of scientific data. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform...’”

Fields Medalist Tim Gowers Takes Action To Stop Cooperating with Anti-Open Science Cartel | ECN: Electronic Component News

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:28 PM PST

 
Fields Medalist Tim Gowers Takes Action To Stop Cooperating with Anti-Open Science Cartel | ECN: Electronic Component News
www.ecnmag.com
"Good for [Tim Gowers]. All we need is for more and more scientists, mathematicians and engineers to support open science with thier actions and open science will be the way things are. It is as simple as that. The outdated business practices of the old journals will die. Either the existing publishers will finally give up on their extremely outdated practices or they will be replaced...."

Scientists are urged to oppose new US legislation that will put studies behind a pay wall

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:26 PM PST

 
Scientists are urged to oppose new US legislation that will put studies behind a pay wall
Keith Epstein
BMJ 344, (17 Jan 2012)
"The Research Works Act, although only 370 words in length, is the latest attempt by the Association of American Publishers, which represents scholarly and professional publications, to undo a 2008 policy adopted by the National Institutes of Health...."

A small bill in the US, a giant impact for research worldwide

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:25 PM PST

 
A small bill in the US, a giant impact for research worldwide
theconversation.edu.au
"But the real reason why Australians should care about the Research Works Act is because research is a global endeavour. Australian researchers currently rely on articles being available through PubMed Central or other open access means so they can continue their own research. If this source of research articles is cut off, then the quality of research that people can undertake here will be diminished...."

Supporting the advancement of science: Open access publishing and the role of mandates

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 10:15 AM PST

 
Supporting the advancement of science: Open access publishing and the role of mandates
Lisa Phelps, Bernard Fox, and Francesco Marincola
Journal of Translational Medicine 10 (1), (24 Jan 2012)
Editorial. Abstract (provisional): In December 2011 the United States House of Representatives introduced a new bill, the Research Works Act (H.R.3699), which if passed could threaten the public's access to US government funded research. In a digital age when professional and lay parties alike look more and more to the online environment to keep up to date with developments in their fields, does this bill serve the best interests of the community? Those in support of the Research Works Act argue that government open access mandates undermine peer-review and take intellectual property from publishers without compensation, however journals like Journal of Translational Medicine show that this is not the case. Journal of Translational Medicine in affiliation with the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer demonstrates how private and public organisations can work together for the advancement of science.
Posted by stevehit to oa.new on Thu Jan 26 2012 at 18:15 UTC | info | related

Goodbye Elsevier, Goodbye Tet Lett etc « Intermolecular

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:56 AM PST

 
Goodbye Elsevier, Goodbye Tet Lett etc « Intermolecular
intermolecular.wordpress.com
"I’ve decided to stop refereeing for, and publishing in, Elsevier journals. I was just asked to review for Tet Lett again, and sent notice that I’m out....I’m starting with Elsevier. The tipping point was the ridiculousness of the Research Works Act – a squalid little affair that was very little to do with the greater good or the benefit of science. I have been irritated by all the pompous talk of the “value” Elsevier adds to the process of peer review....As a chemist, parting company with Tet Lett in particular causes mixed emotions. The journal has a weak reputation amongst my co-workers and colleagues these days, but of course there are classic, beautiful papers in there....But good science is not the product of a journal, it’s the product of hard work by people. The last thing we should be doing is paying anyone over the odds to access it back or giving anyone copyright over it. A sad day, but times change which is why times are interesting. If you want to join the boycott, you can declare yourself here. You’d be in very good company, in case you think this is just a list of naïfs. Eventually I will have to take the same stance on other publishers, with the American Chemical Society looming large...."

Ban Elsevier

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:50 AM PST

 
Ban Elsevier
John Baez
Azimuth, (26 Jan 2012)
"Please take the pledge not to do business with Elsevier. 404 scientists have done it so far...."

Selling out feminism: 100 photocopies for $3,607

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:07 AM PST

 
Selling out feminism: 100 photocopies for $3,607
Heather Morrison
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, (30 Dec 2011)
"Would you like your students to read ...[a certain book]? The cost for rights to photocopy 100 copies for library reserve is $3,607, according to the Copyright Clearance Centre. This photocopy right does not get you the article itself to copy. In contrast, here are three options for full open access that cost more than two thirds less than this publisher wishes to charge for another photocopies for a hundred students: OJS journals average cost per article: $188 (Edgar & Willinsky); Hindawi's Education Research International: $500; Co-Action Publishing's Vulnerable Groups & Inclusion: $965 ..."

Open access to save costs for teaching and learning

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:04 AM PST

 
Open access to save costs for teaching and learning
Heather Morrison
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, (29 Dec 2011)
"Did you know that the cost to put an electronic copy of a single article on reserve for just two semesters can cost more than it would have cost to pay a professional publisher to make the article fully open access in the first place? ..."

Library, Advocacy and Publishing Groups Oppose the Research Works Act

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:47 AM PST

 
Library, Advocacy and Publishing Groups Oppose the Research Works Act
www.arl.org
An open letter opposing the Research Works Act to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 10 US library, publishing, and advocacy organizations: American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, Creative Commons, Greater Western Library Alliance, Public Knowledge, Public Library of Science, and the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

Some Associations, Scholars Protest Bill That Would Curb Public Access to Research

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:27 AM PST

 
Some Associations, Scholars Protest Bill That Would Curb Public Access to Research
Jennifer Howard
Wired Campus, (25 Jan 2012)
"Opposition to the Research Works Act continues to spread. In a statement posted today on its Web site, the Modern Language Association said it opposes the bill.... The Association of American Publishers supports the bill, although not all of its members agree with that position. The open-access advocate Peter Suber has created a running list of scholarly publishers and associations who support or oppose the bill....At the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting this week, David Prosser, the executive director of Research Libraries U.K., described the bill as “audacious in the extreme,” according to a report in Library Journal. He said, “It just seems quite bizarre that they should attempt to appropriate the intellectual capital of researchers that has been funded by the taxpayer and then call it a private research work.” ..."

Opposition to Research Works Act

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:21 AM PST

 
Opposition to Research Works Act
www.mla.org
"As both a publisher and a membership organization, the MLA [Modern Language Association] understands that a publisher’s ability to earn revenue from the services that it provides need not be hindered by the provision of broad public access to scholarly work. Preprint archives, for example, need not compete with formal publications. New business models for the sustainability of open access publications are developing. Unnecessary limits on the free flow of ideas compromise a robust exchange of information and knowledge. In reviewing the language of the Research Works Act and considering the implications of its provisions, the MLA concludes that this legislation has significant negative ramifications for the future of public access to scholarly material and research. The association therefore opposes passage of this legislation...."

Protect Your Right to Know about the Science Behind Supplements!

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:03 AM PST

 
Protect Your Right to Know about the Science Behind Supplements!
secure3.convio.net
"Help us gain co-sponsors for the Free Speech about Science Act, HR 1364! Consumers are largely kept in the dark about the potential health benefits of foods and supplements. Why? Because current law makes it illegal for food and supplement producers to share this information. Congressmen Jason Chaffetz (R–UT) and Jared Polis (D–CO) have introduced the Free Speech about Science Act (HR 1364). This landmark legislation protects basic free speech rights, ends censorship of science, and enables the natural health products community to share peer-reviewed scientific findings about natural health products with the public. At first sight, this might not appear to be a blockbuster bill. But look closely. If it passes, Free Speech about Science has the potential to transform the healthcare field by educating the public about the real science behind natural health. This is a small bill with vast potential leverage. For this very reason, the bill will have opposition. It will be opposed by the FDA, which flatly forbids food and supplement manufacturers from mentioning any link between a product and a health condition. This is true even if the link is established by peer-reviewed scientific studies coming out of Harvard and other highly respected universities...."

No Science for You!

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:01 AM PST

 
No Science for You!
Welcome to the Alliance for Natural Health - USA, (24 Jan 2012)
"In 2008, the National Institutes of Health required that all federally funded research publications be made openly available. PubMedCentral (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. The publishers of the journals weren’t so happy with this new arrangement—they were afraid no one would pay for their publications if the research results were immediately accessible. So the government agreed to give them a full year of journal sales before their research papers had to be posted on PMC, which lets them keep their subscriber base. Journal subscriptions to educational and medical institutions are expensive—and they’re big business. But even this generous arrangement isn’t good enough for the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The trade group liked the old rules, where they could sell the tax-funded research back to the taxpayers. So the AAP got two members of Congress, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), to introduce HR 3699, the Research Works Act...."

Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research - Atlantic Mobile

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:42 AM PST

 
Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research - Atlantic Mobile
m.theatlantic.com
"This morning, I searched for an article about autism on JSTOR, the online database of academic journals. I have a child on the autistic spectrum, and I like to be aware of the latest research on the topic. I could not access any of the first 200 articles that contained the word "autism." That's because, for the most part, only individuals with a college ID card can read academic journal articles. Everyone else, including journalists, non-affiliated scholars, think tanks and curious individuals, must pay a substantial fee per article, if the articles are available at all. I later found one article that was available for $38. I'm not sure why one twelve page article costs $38. It takes me about eight minutes to scan a twelve page article. The researcher receives no royalties. Why does it cost so much to read one article? The answer lies in the antiquated system of academic publishing...."

Lambert Heller hält Alumni OA für eine exzellente strategische Idee

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:25 AM PST

Freies Wissen: Verlage verklagen Bibliothek der ETH Zürich

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:21 AM PST

 
Freies Wissen: Verlage verklagen Bibliothek der ETH Zürich
Martin Steiger
Rechtsanwalt Martin Steiger, (26 Jan 2012)
"Science thrives on global exchanges, in particular through publications. "open access" promotes this exchange by providing free access to scientific publications and prevents, among other things, that privatization of knowledge and self-funded buy back the public needs to know. Digitization promotes "open access" publications and the requirement to publish publicly funded publications freely accessible, is gaining weight. Scientific publishers are threatened by it in its current business model and therefore try not only "open access"-attempts to sabotage, but also to prevent the free access to knowledge through libraries. A recent example from Switzerland describes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): '...[T]he scientific publishers Elsevier, Springer and Thieme filed a complaint with the Zurich Commercial Court, with which the ETH-Bibliothek will be prohibited to carry on their document delivery service in its current form....' "

Elsevier needs to get out more

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:07 AM PST

 
Elsevier needs to get out more
Richard Poynder
Open and Shut?, (26 Jan 2012)
"But while there can be little doubt that Elsevier played an important role in the introduction of the RWA, and that it has donated money to the two lawmakers who sponsored the bill, it would be naïve to think that it is the only publisher that supports the RWA. Most of the others have apparently chosen to keep their heads down and let Elsevier take the hits. For that reason Elsevier has become the primary target for critics of the bill. But why is the criticism quite so vitriolic? Partly, no doubt, because Elsevier is the world’s largest and most dominant subscription publisher, and has long been held to overcharge for its journals, and partly because it resisted Open Access for so long, and with such obduracy. But I think there an important additional reason. Since Derk Haank departed Elsevier for Springer in 2003, the company has had no human face. In many people’s eyes, therefore, the company is viewed not so much as a publisher, but as a faceless, anonymous, and unheeding, moneymaking machine intent only on sucking the lifeblood out of the research community in order to feed the insatiable appetite of its shareholders....[T]he company could do itself a big favour if it began to communicate more directly, and more effectively, with the research community...."

Repositorien müssen mit PND & Co. zusammenarbeiten

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 05:12 AM PST

 
Repositorien müssen mit PND & Co. zusammenarbeiten
Archivalia, (26 Jan 2012)
Posted by Klausgraf to oa.new on Thu Jan 26 2012 at 13:12 UTC | info | related

A visit to the Digital Repository Federation in Japan « Repositories Support Project

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 01:05 PM PST

 
A visit to the Digital Repository Federation in Japan « Repositories Support Project
rspproject.wordpress.com
"...the Digital Repository Federation (DRF) in Japan... is a federation of universities and research institutions which have established institutional repositories. I met with them to share information about the work of the [Repositories Support Project, UK] RSP and the DRF. The meeting involved presentations about our work, in particular the events we run for repository staff. I was struck by the similarities... In Japan and the UK, persuading authors to deposit in the repository is a big issue and support and training in advocacy work features on the DRF and RSP programmes. And librarians often deposit on behalf of authors in Japan...the DRF... has 127 members and there is no charge to participate. You’ll see similarities with UKCoRR here (United Kingdom Council of Research Repositories). It receives funding from the National Institute of Informatics to provide training. They run events all over Japan for library staff and have held two international conferences... I went into some detail about the events we run, sharing some examples such as the activities on the Communication Skills for Advocacy workshop (see my presentation and notes). I also discovered some interesting techniques used in training by the DRF which I’m going to explore further for use in the UK. The DRF has produced a really good report into its activities “Hita-hita: institutional OA advocacy in Japan” which is well worth reading.”

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