Events celebrating Open Access Day in eIFL countries

Thanks to Iryna Kuchma, eIFL OA Program Manager, (who posted the following record of events on the eIFL website http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa) we can see how widespread the celebration of OA has become:

Description

October 14, 2008 was the world’s first Open Access Day. The founding partners were SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science. Open Access Day helped to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public (http://openaccessday.org/). Information about Open Access Day activities in Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mozambique, Poland, South Africa, Sudan.

Azerbaijan: Khazar University Library Information centre translated "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber into Azeri language (http://www.khazar.org/library/news.shtm#news1). Khazar University Library Information Center administrates Khazar University Institutional Repository (KUIR) - the fist institutional repository in Azerbaijan showcasing the research outputs of Khazar University staff (http://dspace.khazar.org; more information about the repository is here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_18_khazar-university). Contact person: Tatyana Zayseva, Library Information Centre Director, tzayseva[@]gmail.com.

Lithuania: Lithuanian research libraries consortium together with Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science and the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education organized the workshop about Open access in the Lithuanian Academy of Science on October, 14, 2008. Workshop program is available online (http://www.lmba.lt/doc/seminaras_spalio14.doc) and information about open access is also on the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium website (http://www.lmba.lt/OA/liet/oa.htm). Contact person: Dr. Gintare Tautkeviciene, Kaunas University of Technology, eIFL Open Access country coordinator, gintare.tautkeviciene[@]ktu.lt.

Macedonia: On the occasion of the International Open Access Day, Metamorphosis Foundation sent an open letter to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia calling them to instigate an initiative for systematic, prompt and efficient resolution for the acute lack of educational contents available online (e-contents) in the local languages in Macedonia (http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1264/61/lang,en/). Contact person: Bardhyl Jashari, Metamorphosis Foundation, bjasari[@]soros.org.mk.

Moldova: A blog about Open Access in Romanian language and a directory of Open Access Moldavian resources were launched on the Open Access Day: http://oarm.blog2x2.net/. Natalia Cheradi, eIFL Open Access coordinator in Moldova, Consortium eIFL Direct Moldova, spoke about Open Access on the National Radio and National TV (TV-4 channel). Contact person: Natalia Cheradi, the Open Access Coordinator for Moldova, cheradi[@]lib.ase.md.

Mozambique: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, wrote an article about Open Access to be published in the national newspaper and participated in the Radio Mozambique show. She also translated "We Support Open Access Flyer" featuring a librarian, teacher, funder, student and patient advocate, into Portuguese language. Earlier this year Aissa Mitha Issak organised a workshop about Institutional Repositories and Open Access in Maputo, Mozambique. The major outcome of this workshop was a project on the shared open repository for Mozambique, gathering the intellectual production of the academic and research staff in the country funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and at the pilot stage covering three institutions. The University of Minho will assure the technical support. More information: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_17_workshop-on. Contact person: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, amissak[@]apolitecnica.ac.mz.

Poland: Bożena Bednarek-Michalska, eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Torun, Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries, translated into Polish "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber and "We Support Open Access Flyer"; different institutions put this information with Open Access Day icon on their portals and web-sites on October 14. Bożena Bednarek-Michalska sent letters to the ministries, Universities and other public institutions about Open Access. Web-sites about Open Access Day: http://www.ebib.info/content/view/1568/. ICM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling), Warsaw, Poland posted blog posts about Open Access Day: http://boa.icm.edu.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/ and http://creativecommons.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/.

South Africa: In celebration of Open Access Day, Durban University of Technology Libraries hosted an informal open session on the Institutional Repository and how researchers can get their research ready for submission into the Repository. Contact person: Pam Govender, pamgoven[@]dut.ac.za; Web & IT Support Officer, DUT Library, ML Sultan Library, http://library.dut.ac.za. University of Pretoria had an Open Access happening of which the message was "You are in good company if you support open access" with posters all over campus, buttons, a message on the university's main web page (http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=2843&articleID=997 a powerpoint slide show running constantly in the library (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/7550), students with OA t-shirts speaking to other students. Two open sessions on the open access research repository were organised and attended by 60 researchers from across faculty. Contact people: Monica Hammes, Assistant Director: Open Scholarship, Quality Assurance and UP Centenary Academic Information Service, University of Pretoria, Monica.Hammes[@]up.ac.za and Ina Smith, Digital Research Repository (UPSpace) Manager & eApplication Specialist, Department of Library Services, University of Pretoria, Ina.Smith[@]up.ac.za. University of Johannesburg Library and Information centre promoted Open Access day (UJ Science Librarian Blog: http://ujsciencelibrarianblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/open-access-day-14-october-2008.html and UJ Librarians News: http://ujlibrariansnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/open-access-day-october-14-2008.html). Contact person: Pavlinka Kovatcheva, Subject Librarian: Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus, pkovatcheva[@]uj.ac.za.

Sudan: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, published at the web-site of the Open University of Sudan (http://www.ous.edu.sd/) selected translations from English into Arabic about benefits of Open Access to contribute to the awareness raising among Arabic countries. These documents will be also disseminated via the web-site of the Ministry of higher education of Sudan. Contact person: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, abdalazizgabir[@]yahoo.com.

More information about events celebrating Open Access Day: http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Events_celebrating_Open_Access_Day.

We are pleased to announce that next year’s Open Access Week will be in October 2009, dates to be confirmed. To hear about the latest development please complete the form here: http://www.formspring.com/forms/?377428-uGOWZXQybK http://openaccessday.org/

Bioline spreads its wings!

Bioline International has now been working with publishers in developing countries for 15 years, helping to raise the visibility of the largely unrecognised research reported in their journals. There are now 70 journals from 17 countries using the Bioline platform and, because of the benefits of open access in terms of visibility, improved submissions, improved impact and even improved subscription levels to the printed versions, there is now a queue of other journals waiting to become partners.

Usage of the open access Bioline material rises year by year (in 2007, for example, there were 3.5 million full text downloads made by readers from both the developing world and the industrial nations and usage up to mid-2008 is equally encouraging) showing a real need for the information in the journals.

The joint initiative between the University of Toronto and the Centre for Environmental Research Information in Brazil is now launching a new Sponsorship and Membership program to increase the level of funding available in order to extend the numbers of journals on the system. Organisations or individuals may either become founding Sponsors by making a single donation, the level of which can be negotiated individually, or may become Members through an annual donation of $500. Already, a number of organisations have made such a commitment, recognising the importance of including regional research into the global knowledge pool.

As no charge is made to partner publishers for document management or site maintenance, all such donations will be spent directly in enabling poorly known journals published in developing countries to reap the benefits of open access and become part of the international scene.

Congratulations are due to the University of Toronto and the CRIA centre in Brazil for all their hard and dedicated work. Bioline has ‘come of age’. Any organisation or individual wanting to support the extension of this invaluable service can find out more at http://www.bioline.org.br/info?id=bioline&doc=support.

Posted by Barbara Kirsop

Yes, you can

On this momentous day, when America has returned the Democratic party to office by electing its first African-American President, Barak Obama, the world can look forward to changes in America’s approach in science. During his campaign, Obama announced that he planned to double investment in basic research, ensure more transparency in contracts, and make government data available to all online (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INo69f7f8bo). This intention, combined with his ‘can do’ philosophy, presages well for the open distribution and sharing of research data. His background in Kenya and Indonesia ensures an understanding of the need to redress the information-deprivation experienced still by researchers in the economically poor countries.

This message of renewed hope for greater openness in sharing information, comes at a time when there is growing evidence of the manifest benefits for individual researchers achieved by providing open access to their research output. The OptimalScholarship blog of Alma Swan, http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/2008/10/reasons-researchers-really-rate.html, recently provided yet another very encouraging story showing how deposit of articles in the Queensland University of Technology repository has significantly increased the downloads/impact/citation of deposited research articles. The QUT’s most prolific author, a chemist, Ray Frost, found that citations to his work increased from ~300 to 1200/year once he had deposited his papers in the QUT open access repository in 2004, as the charts below show.

So if you researchers out there want to make a difference, want your research to lead to new developments, want to raise your career prospects, the means are in your hands. Deposit copies of your published articles in your institutional repository, or publish in an OA journal in the first place. Yes, you can.

And if your institute is so behind the times that it hasn’t yet established an IR (remember, free software, quick to set up, free help to hand), please let the EPT know on ept@biostrat.demon.co.uk. We need to know of any difficulties (and of any successes too) in making your research as widely accessible as possible. There are people that can help, but they need to know the scale and kind of problems you face.

Posted by Barbara Kirsop

Open Access Day - remembering an historical event 60 years ago

Open Access Day – an historical perspective from the UK

As everyone is celebrating the first Open Access Day, October 14th 2008, Britain has recently been celebrating the 60^th birthday of the establishment of its National Health Service. On July 5^th 1948, just 3 years after the end of WWll, when food and clothes rationing were still in place, the fiery Welsh MP for Ebbw Vale, Aneurin Bevan – ex miner, Labour to his boots - fought fierce opposition from the medical establishment to achieve what to many was an unimaginable dream of a free health service for all at the point of delivery. Free and open access to local doctors, hospitals, medicines, maternity care, dental treatment . . .

At this time, the country was rebuilding many hospitals that had been destroyed and it seemed an unlikely time to introduce such a revolutionary concept. The medical profession and its senior organisation, the British Medical Association, were appalled and saw the NHS as heralding the end of their cherished profession, the end of their prized status and indeed their livelihood. There were petitions, marches, heated debates and it seemed the battle was lost. But Bevan stuck firm to his vision and initiated a vigorous publicity campaign targeted at the general public. As the strength of the positive response from the population became clear, a few doctors wavered and agreed to join the NHS. It then became clear to the profession that if some of their community agreed, they would attract very high numbers of patients, leaving the deniers struggling for people to add to their list. They might be faced with empty waiting rooms and no income. At this moment in the campaign Bevan proposed that if doctors agreed to serve with the NHS, they could retain a part of their private practice. A deal was struck and the NHS came into existence, on time, over budget and under-prepared. Sick people – really sick people - flocked to their doctors, threatening to overwhelm the service, but demonstrating indisputably the great volume of untreated health problems within the population.

As we watched recent TV programmes on the battle for the NHS, it has been tempting to draw parallels with the drive towards OA. The publishers fear the advent of free global access to publicly funded research findings. They too fear their livelihoods will be damaged. As in 1948, there are misunderstandings, misinformation, technical uncertainties. But both the NHS and OA came into being to meet the needs of disadvantaged communities. When the NHS opened its doors, there was astonishment at the long queues of citizens waiting for free treatment. Similarly, as research articles have become available free to all, usage has rocketed and full text download statistics have amazed OA repository managers and OA publishers, demonstrating without doubt the information deprivation faced by much of the global scientific community.

And now, 60 years on, the NHS flourishes. People grumble of course, there have been little injections of commercialisation, and the service has elements in need of improvement, - but in truth the British treasure the NHS to such an extent that it has been proposed that its birthday be marked as a national holiday, “as a symbol of the countries’ commitment to fairness”. The doctors have adapted (and are still earning enviable salaries), the patients are beginning to forget how it used to be and make increasing demands, the health of the nation has improved beyond recognition. The courageous ‘Nye’ Bevan was vilified by the establishment, but today some of those that witnessed this social revolution have placed him on a pedestal, for ever grateful for his vision. And six years on from February 14^th 2002 when the Budapest Open Access Initiative was launched, the embryo OA still thrives, as does the publishing industry.

Sixty years hence, on OA Day 2068, the international research community will look back on the old days and wonder how research was ever conducted without the access now becoming available - and if the history of the NHS is a model, there will be no turning back the clock.

On 5 July we start together, the new National Health Service. It has not had an altogether trouble-free gestation. There have been understandable anxieties, inevitable in so great and novel an undertaking…... My job is to give you all the facilities, resources and help I can, and then to leave you alone as professional men and women to use your skills and judgement without hindrance. Let us try to develop that partnership from now on.'
- Aneurin Bevan, The Lancet, 1948

For more information on Aneurin Bevan and the political fight for the NHS, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan

Posted by Barbara Kirsop, Trustee and Secretary EPT.

Australia leads the way

Following the conference on Open Access and Research held in September in Australia, http://www.oar2008.qut.edu.au/, and hosted by Queensland University of Technology, the following statement was developed and has the endorsement of over sixty participants.

Brisbane Declaration

Preamble

The participants recognise Open Access as a strategic enabling activity, on which research and inquiry will rely at international, national, university, group and individual levels.

Strategies

Therefore the participants resolve the following as a summary of the basic strategies that Australia must adopt:

1 Every citizen should have free open access to publicly funded research, data and knowledge.

2 Every Australian university should have access to a digital repository to store its research outputs for this purpose.

3 As a minimum, this repository should contain all materials reported in the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC).

4 The deposit of materials should take place as soon as possible, and in the case of published research articles should be of the author’s final draft at the time of acceptance so as to maximize open access to the material.

Brisbane, September, 2008

Arthur Sale, a participant and strong advocate of open access said, ‘The Conference wanted to support the two Australian Ministers with responsibility for Innovation, Science and Health in their moves to make open access mandatory for all Australian-funded research.' The Declaration represented an overwhelming consensus of the active members of the repository community in Australia and Arthur Sale believes that it offers a model for other countries. Once again, Australia is ahead of the game in working towards a national open access policy.

OA 'a small idea'?

A recent contributor to the AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG, Joe Esposito, made statements that need addressing. He said, in relation to the semi-automated ability to request copies of papers of articles archived in OA Institutional Repositories, ‘ Most authors, of course, will not be troubled much with requests because the articles are indeed available to most researchers through institutional subscriptions’, and later ‘. . . OA has little impact’, and finally ‘OA is a small idea’. By responding to this posting, I am aware that I am merely re-stating what is abundantly clear to the scholarly community, but less informed readers may be concerned by the statements made.

If it is true, as he states, that ‘the articles are available to most researchers through institutional subscriptions’, how is it that when material *is* made OA, hundreds and thousands of articles are downloaded daily? How is it, for example, that of the 13,000 records archived in the Universidad de Los Andes’ OA Institutional Repository in Venezuela, 10,000 full text health articles were downloaded in the first 8 days in August 2008? Researchers in the developing world – as has been reported many times and is now well acknowledged – can afford few or even no subscriptions (see for eg New England Journal of Medicine 350, no. 10 (2004): 966–968, showing that in a WHO survey of medical institutes in developing countries there had been *no* subscriptions to journals over the previous 5 years by 56% of institutes in the poorest countries). Globally, no library can afford all the journals it would wish to subscribe to.

In spite of research findings to the contrary, he also concludes that ‘OA has little impact’. But people have different interpretations of what is ‘impact’. To some, it just means citations. Important, yes, but as all researchers know, at the start of a new project, it is standard practice to find and read a considerable number of papers, some recent, some not, and the knowledge this provides feeds into their future work, directing their understanding, broadening their horizons, providing technical information (methods, procedures . .) and only a little of this will be cited in future publications. This ‘impact’ arising from their reading and discussions with colleagues is near-immeasurable, but is essential to the successful conduct of research programmes. If impact equals recorded future usage, statistics of the magnitude of downloads being shown from OA IRs (see ‘Bring on the IRs’ on this blog, March 2008) and OA Journals (3.5 million full text downloads from developing country journals distributed through the Bioline International system in a year . . . sharply increasing usage figures from the OA MedKnow journals published in Mumbai . . .) now demonstrate clearly that this information, previously locked away in vaults, is needed and downloaded by researchers for professional purposes, not for fun.

And if the concept of OA is ‘a small idea’, how is it that approaching 55 highly regarded international and national organisations have required that it be adopted? How is it that there are now 1145 registered OA Institutional Repositories (increasing by ~1/day)? How is it that there are now 3617 registered OA Journals?

Posted by Barbara Kirsop

OA between Caribbean hurricanes

OA between two hurricanes

An InterAcademy Panel workshop on ‘Open Access to Scientific Literature and other Digital Scientific Information Resources in Central America and the Caribbean: Focus on Education and Health for Sustainable Development’ was organized by the Cuban Academy of Science – between hurricanes. In spite of weather worries, speakers arrived and everything took place in excellent order, organized seemingly near-single handed by Alejandro Caballero de Rivero of the Cuban Academy. Alejandro has my vote for the Olympic Gold Medal in the sport of Workshop Organisation. The programme is available from http://www.academiaciencias.cu/English_1/Working%20information/Events/talleropenaccess2008en.pdf, and further information will be posted on the site in due course, so bookmark this site to receive details of the presentations.

My impression is that many of the Caribbean participants are well informed about OA and very anxious to become part of the OA exchange of research information, but are struggling to organize how to manage this within their own research structures. Who will do it? Inter-departmental communication is not always well established yet – not only in Cuba, but also in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries. Participants sometimes knew more about international OA developments than about what is taking place across town. Incoming speakers and participants from more OA-advanced countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Chile were able to provide a lot of relevant information and contacts, which it is hoped will accelerate progress.

There were presentations on how the Creative Commons License works, how institutional repositories work, how the InterAcademy works, what is underway in the different Cuban ministries. The research networks infrastructure progress was described and OA policy developments in Brazil, as well as progress in the SciELO e-publishing service. Outside the formal programme there were short presentations on the Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook, an OSI-supported initiative to bring together in a single resource ‘everything you will ever want to know about OA’, with new and existing initiatives being contributed by experts around the world. Watch http://eprints.utsc.utoronto.ca/oasis/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=94 for developments over the coming months. Additionally a short presentation was made on the EU’s next DRIVER programme (called OverDriver) which is aimed at exporting the DRIVER institutional repository services beyond the EU to enable exchange of research information between the EU and researchers in other regions of the world.

The IAP will be working on projects to support OA developments, following a final discussion on needs and opportunities.

The arrival of the hotel parrot in the beautiful tropical atrium at coffee breaks was much appreciated and led to interesting conversations.