An Open Textbook Catalog is available from the University of Minnesota, offering options that will help reduce students’ costs for books. To make it easier for potential users to judge each title’s quality, its contents are being reviewed by Minnesota faculty; reviewers from other institutions are invited to participate as well.
University of Minnesota Launches Open Textbook Catalog
May 3rd, 2012Harvard Faculty Memo Criticizes High Journals Prices, Supports Alternatives
April 25th, 2012The faculty advisory committee to the Harvard University Library has issued a memorandum to all faculty criticizing the high and ever-increasing prices of journal titles and packages. The memo notes that “…major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas, already compromised.”
Among other actions, the memo recommends that faculty publish in Harvard’s open access repository and open access journals and consider resigning from editorial boards of journals that will not consider open access publishing models or publishers with more reasonable pricing models.
Directory of Open Access Books Launched in Beta
April 24th, 2012A beta version of a Directory of Open Access Books has been launched to gather user feedback, which will be used to develop it further. The contents, focused on peer-reviewed books published under an open access license, currently total approximately 750 books from more than twenty publishers; academic publishers are invited to submit metadata for their open access books. The directory comprises a searchable index linked to full text on publishers’ websites.
Economist Editorial Supports Public Access to Funded Research
April 13th, 2012An editorial in the April 14, 2012, edition of The Economist comes out strongly in favor of public access to articles resulting from goverment-funded research: “Government bodies that fund academic research should require that the results be made available free to the public. So should charities that fund research.”
World Bank Announces Open Access Policy
April 10th, 2012The World Bank will implement a new open access policy for its research outputs and knowledge products as of July 1, 2012. As the policy’s first phase, the bank has launched an “open knowledge repository” and adopted Creative Commons copyright licenses. Under the new policy, anyone will be able to use, re-use, and redistribute most World Bank knowledge products and research outputs for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
The policy will also apply to the institution’s two journals, World Bank Research Observer and World Bank Economic Review, which are published by Oxford University Press. In accordance with the terms of the third-party publisher agreements, this content will be subject to publishing embargoes, but the amount of time it takes for externally published World Bank content to be included in its institutional repository is expected to diminish over time.
California Representatives Sign On to FRPAA
March 20th, 2012Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Henry Waxman have joined more than twenty bipartisan co-sponsors of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation would require federal agencies to provide public online access to articles reporting on the results of federally funded research no more than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Joint bills were introduced in both the House and Senate on February 9 and have attracted broad bipartisan support for their potential to fuel innovation and economic growth.
Congressional Co-sponsors Decide Not to Move Forward with Research Works Act Legislation
March 1st, 2012Representatives Darryl Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), co-sponsors of H.R. 3699, the Research Works Act, have decided not to take further action on the legislation. The bill spurred broad and varied reactions from publishers, researchers, universities, and open-access advocates; most recently, the publisher Elsevier withdrew its support for the legislation.
Data Management Planning Tool Launched
October 19th, 2011U.S. funding agencies including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health require researchers to supply detailed, cost-effective plans for managing grant-funded research data. Along with the UCLA Library’s Web page to help researchers meet agency data management requirements, UC’s California Digital Library, along with other institutions, has launched an online data management planning tool to help guide researchers through the process of creating a plan.
The tool helps researchers generate ready-to-use data management plans required by specific funding agencies, get step-by-step instructions and guidance on data management plans, and find resources and services that can help meet funders’ data management plan requirements.
Though the tool is ready for use, it is still being actively developed, and feedback is invited. Offer feedback or request further assistance from UCLA librarians via email.
