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Category: repositories

On “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access,” by Peter Suber

On “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access,” by Peter Suber

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Peter Suber unpacks the relationship between prestige and journal publishing in “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access.” He argues that, despite suggestions to the contrary, the institutional emphasis on prestige in the academy does not have to be a barrier to open access (OA), which many feel is not as prestigious as toll access (TA) publishing. Prestige is not an obstacle to green OA, as authors may have the option to deposit pre- or post-prints of their TA articles…

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On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

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In In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing, Jean-Claude Guédon assesses the state of academic publishing as of 2001, including library activities and commercial publisher strategies. This early contribution to the open scholarship / scholarly communication conversation was originally presented in a talk to the Association of Research Libraries. Guédon argues that libraries need to take a more prominent role in the dissemination elements of scholarly communication by actively supporting and being involved…

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On “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” by Rick Anderson

On “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” by Rick Anderson

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In “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” Rick Anderson considers and advocates in favour for the potentially disruptive role of Green OA on subscriptions budgets. He argues that without cancelling subscriptions alongside moving to Green OA, library budgets will not recover. Anderson brings attention to the fact that more OA articles is not what is needed; rather, a transition from toll access to open access is the action that would have the largest impact. Although Anderson…

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On “Institutional Repositories and Academic Social Networks: Competition or Complement?” by Julia A. Lovett et al.

On “Institutional Repositories and Academic Social Networks: Competition or Complement?” by Julia A. Lovett et al.

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Julia A. Lovett, Andrée J. Rathemacher, Diana Boukari, and Corey Lang set out to compare whether faculty members at their institution, the University of Rhode Island, deposit their work more with ResearchGate or with the institution’s own repository. To do so, the authors perform a population study and survey of over 500 faculty members. Lovett et al. found that scholars who are prone to depositing with one system will likely deposit with another. As such, Lovett et al. argue, “librarians…

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On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

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The Final Report of the Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group outlines the current challenges to the Canadian academic publishing system, as well as suggests principles to guide a successful, sustainable system moving forward. These principles include accountability (to the academy), supporting openness and high-quality publishing practices, well-informed authors, dynamic Canadian publishing opportunities, building on strength, and flexibility and adaptability. The report applauds initiatives like the collaboration between Érudit and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to bring more open access journals…

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On “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” by Mikael Laakso et al.

On “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” by Mikael Laakso et al.

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In “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” Mikael Laakso, Juho Lindman, Cenyu Shen, Linus Nyman, and Bo-Christer Björk study the role of Academic Social Networks (ASNs) in the scholarly communication landscape. In particular, the authors look at the popular, commercial platforms ResearchGate and academia.edu, and “the degree of full-text access that ASNs provide as a share of total research output of an institution” (127). Laakso et al. argue that the impact and prominence…

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On “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” by Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede

On “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” by Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede

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In “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede consider open access repositories in the context of social justice. This is not, perhaps, what it might seem at first glance: Heller and Gaede move beyond the standard argument that open access is a public good, and de facto social issue (although they do use this argument as a theoretical foundation). Rather, Heller and Gaede run an experiment to determine the…

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On “Interoperability and Retrieval” (UNESCO Curriculum)

On “Interoperability and Retrieval” (UNESCO Curriculum)

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The Open Access for Library Schools curriculum was developed under UNESCO’s Open Access Program. On their website UNESCO writes, “The carefully designed and developed sets of OA curricula for researchers and library and information professionals are based on two needs assessment surveys, and several rounds of face-to-face and online consultations with relevant stakeholders” (n.p.). Here, I’ve scanned through the “Interoperability and Retrieval” module. This module is a rather specialized look at interoperability and retrieval needs and standards for open access…

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On “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” by Stevan Harnad

On “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” by Stevan Harnad

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In “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” Stevan Harnad points out a flaw in the Research Councils UK (RCUK) policy released in 2012 that resolved to make any RCUK-funded research open access within 2 years. The issue, as Harnad sees it, is that the RCUK has agreed to direct more funds to Gold OA (i.e., open access journal publishing) over Green OA (i.e., OA repository deposit). This will not make researchers publish OA, Harnad argues, as it…

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On “Open Access is a Research Community Matter, Not a Publishing Community Matter,” by Stevan Harnad

On “Open Access is a Research Community Matter, Not a Publishing Community Matter,” by Stevan Harnad

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In this short article, Stevan Harnad repeats his argument that Green OA (i.e., depositing research in OA repositories) is the best path toward the widespread adoption and implementation of open access. In “Open Access is a Research Community Matter, Not a Publishing Community Matter,” he aims to convince researchers to self-archive or deposit their own output because publishers do not yet have enough impetus to commit wholly to open access. Further, Harnad argues, “researchers’ institutions and funders need to mandate…

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